I can't stomach it any more.
A link to Daily Kos from a Katie Granju piece in her KNS blog led me to a Kos commenter suggesting not only that Sarah Palin's 5th child wasn't hers but her daughters, but that the child may have been the product of incest. The comments on Katie's post reveal the worst of both sides of the political fence. And now there are rumors circling from the left that her oldest child was conceived out of wedlock. (Gasp!) And Republicans were no better. I remember all the rumors about Hillary and Vince Foster, or that Hillary was a lesbian that dogged the Clinton Presidency. All of it is crap. Period.
I tend to stay away from DU and Free Republic because those kinds of comments are common, but now they are showing up in more mainstream political discourse like a newspaper blog and it just turns my stomach. Not only are the commenters reprehensible, but this is a subject that should have no place in politics. The left cries foul when Chelsea Clinton is attacked, but then wages open war on the Bush twins and now on Sarah Palin's child. The Republicans are crying fowl now, but they sure had fun with Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton, didn't they?
It's disgusting. Bringing it up in a newspaper blog cheapens the newspaper almost as much as it does the blogger. And the bad thing for me is that now it's a "story" and I'm compelled to react to it.
I love politics when it is a philosophical debate which reveals not just what people believe but why they believe it. We will disagree at the most fundamental levels during this debate, but when you understand the guy on the other side, you can find a way to work with him. This doesn't mean you compromise your ideals, the current popular definition, but you find ways to work towards mutual goals. For example, I think abortion is a criminal act, that the right to choose ends when it involves the loss of another life. A pro choice person will disagree with that, but we will both agree that abortion is certainly the least preferred method of dealing with this issue, and we can work together to provide increased ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place, whether through contraception or abstinance or both. Everybody wins.
Unfortunately, modern America has turned politics into a blood sport. The most common idea on both sides of the aisle is that anyone who doesn't believe as I do is an enemy to be fought and vanquished. Ideological purity is becoming more important than intelligence or achievement. Right after the local elections, the head of Knoxville's Democratic Party wanted to kick out one of the district representatives for the awful crime of congratualting a family friend who happened to be a Republican.
It's asinine. (And no Stacy, asinine is still not considered to be foul language on any blog othjer than your own.)
I don't play that way. I'm more interested in a man's character than his politics. For example, I consider Doug McCaughan and his wife Cathy to be good friends of mine, and they are both self described flaming liberals. (If you don't believe me just ask them for a T-shirt.) I think they are both decent, honorable, intelligent people who happen to prioritize things differently than I do, and work from a different set of basic assumptions, and that leads them to a different set of political ideals. I think they are wrong, and I'm fairly certain they think the same about my politics. But that's all minor compared to the fact that they are good, decent people. Doug and Cathy helped me move my then girlfriend, now fiance on their only child free night of the week because that's the kind of people they are.
Partisan politics is becoming too personal. The Knoxville blogging community already has too many examples of people who take their politics so seriously that they refuse to associate with people who don't share their particular brand of Kool Aid. I don't want to contribute to that. Now I have strongly held convictions and because of the way I write, when I voice them it can be very challenging to those who hold different convictions. If I continue to write about politics, I run the risk of alienating people I like and respect, so I have to make a choice.
Do I continue to write about politics, and run the risk of losing friends, or do I back off for a while, and leave the screaming to those who seem to enjoy it? The decision is easy. Reading and writing about politics leaves me angry; spending time with my friends makes me happy.
So don't expect too much in the way of political commentary or analysis over the next few months, unless of course I'm making fun of some overly partisan moron who desperately needs it. And as for the election, I'll pick one of the third party guys, or write in a candidate. I won't vote for a guy who tried to shut down my freedom of speech, no matter how much I like his choice of VP, and I won't vote for a guy who has called for a national police force with the same funding and power as the military, no matter how well he reads from a teleprompter.
and
Wow.
Tell me again how Democrats are the compassionate ones?
The game was over and our team had won and won big. In the midst of all the celebration I noticed the head coach engaged in an intense conversation with one of the parents on his team. I eased over in that direction since I needed to talk to the coach about an issue with the sound system. As I got closer, I heard the following conversation:
Obnoxious Parent: My son is the best receiver on your team. Why didn't you throw the ball to him more?
Head Coach: Let me ask you a question first. What defense was the other team lined up in>
OP: Excuse me?
HC: What defense were they lined up in? Were they in a cover one or cover two? Were they blitzing a linebacker or having one drop back into coverage? Was their line playing up tight and pressuring the run, or were they sitting back to cover the pass? Was the safety sliding over to help the corner or was he blitzing up the middle?
OP: I don't know much about defenses; I'm not sure what you're asking me...
HC: If you don't know about the defenses the other team was running, then how can you come up to me and tell me I should have thrown the ball more?
OP: Aaaahh ermmmmm My wife made me come over here!
Just kidding. I have very little good to say about referees, particularly TSSAA referees who work Saturday football games for money.
If you're a ref, and you work on Saturdays because you love the game, and you love watching the kids play, then the rest of this doesn't concern you.
For the rest of you, the ones who are out there for the money, or because you can't quite hack the high school game anymore, I'd just as soon you sit at home on the couch and watch the big game on TV than come out to our field and ruin our games.
We had a referee tonight who made it clear from the moment he stepped on our field that he didn't want to be there, and he wanted to make sure he got out of there as quickly as possible. He ran the clock when it should have been stopped, waved off penalties to keep the clock from stopping, and in general called a very loose game. He harassed the clock keeper and the announcer (me) to move the games along faster, even reducing the time between games, which made it hard for the teams to get on and off the field and get warmed up before the game.
What makes it worse is that out of all the people working to make these games happen, the only ones getting paid are the refs. Everyone else is donating their time, money, sweat, and blood so the kids can have a team. Yet the only people making a dime from all of this work are also the ones who resent being there.
So don't be there. Stay home. Be comfortable. If you need the extra money that badly go out and get a job. But don't mess with a bunch of kids who just want to spend a Saturday evening playing football. They deserve better.
Yeah, I know. I've said this before, but I'll keep saying it as long as I keep running into these pathetic little men who need to boss around little kids to feel like they are somebody.
One thing that I noticed in his acceptance speech: even though it occurred on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic speech, Obama never made his race an issue. While I'm sure he's pursuing a strategy that is walking a fine line between alienating white voters for being too black and alienating black voters for being too white, I still allow hope to triumph over cynicism from time to time, and I really hope that Obama made a decision to run as a man, not as a black man. I'm sure a lot of folks will call me naive for saying this, and they may prove to be right, but for right now, I'm enjoying the hope that a man can run for President without using his race as a crutch. c.f. Sharpton and Jackson.
Sarak Palin is running for Vice President.
Barack Obama is running for President.
There is a difference in the positions. One runs the country from the start; the other opens shopping malls. One has his finger on the nuclear button; the other and breaks ties in the Senate.
So for all of you saying that Palin for VP validates Obama for Pres, I just want to say thank you for finally admitting that Barack lacks the experience for the job. Your honesty is a refreshing change.
Interestingly, a case can be made that Palin actually has more executive experience than Obama; of course, since Obama has no executive experience, that's not saying much. But Palin is the Chief Executive of Alaska, as well as Commander of the State National Guard. She has two years of experience at running things; Obama has four years of experience in stopping things.
One of the funnier things is watching the left immediately jump onto the whole, "McCain only chose her to siphon off the Hillary voters!" bandwagon. That's a sucker play because the more we learn about Gov. Palin, the more admirable the choice becomes. McCain will be able to argue convincingly that he chose her because she can get the job done, and the fact that she is a woman is a bonus. And when Palin referenced Hillary in her acceptance speech, rather than an attempt to grab Hillary voters, an unlikely gambit at best, she surely impressed and attracted the uncommitted moderate female vote, who now have an attractive option.
As for the whole, "heartbeat away from the Presidency argument" it falls flat for a couple of reasons. First, Obama wouldn't be a heartbeat away, he would be the heartbeat, and that means he needs to meet a higher standard of readiness. Second, Palin has some experience already, and will surely have time to learn on the job, before she gets her finger on the button.
Gun owner...check
Religious...check
Small town...check
conservative...check
Is it just coincidence that Gov. Palin represents every group Obama dissed in his little "bitter people clinging to guns and God" gaffe, or is McCain really that smart?
And if he is that smart, isn't that another plus for him in the "Why I should be President column?
Last night, Obama promised to invest 150 billion over 10 years into renewable energy resources, an investment that he says will create 5 million good paying jobs.
And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy; wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
Now the math. 150 billion divided by 10 is 15 billion dollars a year. Divide that by 5 million jobs and you get $3000 per job per year.
Woo hoo! Sign me up!
Now, let's just say that a good job pays $30k per year and to keep things simple, we'll ignore all the other employment costs like insurance, workers comp, and Social Security payments. We're now talking about a return on our investment of 10 dollars in private capital for every dollar invested in just 10 years. Folks, even Microsoft doesn't coin money like that.
And we haven't even considered a little thing like the cost of actually doing the research yet!
It's all pie in the sky folks. The numbers don't work.
He also neglected to say that the 150 billion is coming from a new emissions tax on corporations. In his energy paper, Obama says that he will put into place a cap and trade emissions policy with a 100% auction of emissions credits. What this means is that companies will have to buy emissions credits at a governmental auction in order to continue to do business. So at one stroke, Obama will add a new burden to the cost of doing business. Of course, it goes without saying that manufacturers will pass that cost onto the consumer.
The interesting thing is that in a standard cap and trade deal, companies are assigned credits based on past emissions, and they can swap these credits back and forth for expansion or other uses. If company A can reduce its emissions cheaply, it can turn around and sell credits to company B. This creates an economic incentive for reducing emissions since you can then sell your excess credits to other companies. From Obama's point of view, this is unsatisfactory because the government will only see a small cut of the savings, based on transaction fees and the like. Instead, he wants to take all of the money to fund his grandiose schemes, by auctioning off the credits. The unfortunate effect of this greed is to remove the economic incentive of the swap portion of the plan. Companies will simply purchase the amount of credit they need and pass the cost along to the consumer. Obama has crippled his own program before it ever gets started.
Reading the energy paper is very interesting. In fact, I'll be doing a full post on it shortly. But for now, as you read through it, think about the regulations that will be needed, as well as the regulatory agencies that will be needed to implement all of his plans. Think about the economic costs and burdens he is imposing on the manufacturing capacity of this country. Take careful note of every time the words mandate or requirement are used.
Then ask yourself a simple question: What happened to freedom?
The coronation is complete and Obama is now the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Now that he has made history and all, I think it would be nice of him to answer a few questions, like, exactly where he stands on issues other than the war he voted against before he was in a position to vote against it.
Isn't it funny that the only unequivocal stand he has taken to date, opposition to the war in Iraq, including the surge that won it, is the wrong one? Had he been President, Saddam would still be in power, still torturing his citizens, slaughtering those who were in his way, chasing after nukes and other WMDs, harboring America's enemies and vowing to destroy Israel. Instead, there is a moderate, liberal democracy in place in Iraq. A timeline has been established for the Iraqi people to finish the job of taking responsibility for their own safety, and for the US troops to leave the country. Violence is down. Terrorist networks are in disarray all over the planet. The most wanted terrorist lists of 5 and 10 years ago are obsolete; the terrorists are either captured, dead, or hding in some cave, afraid to poke their heads out for fear of meeting a Predator.
Here's my problem with Obama; rather than recognize that having begun, we had to follow through, he refused to budge frm his position that we shouldn't be there. He would have pulled out in the middle of the job, and left things worse than when we started. I can understand a principled opposition to war, but at the same time, any adult will realize that once begun, you have to finish the job. Responsible Democrats (Yes, Virginia, they do exist, although extinction may be rapidly approaching) recognized this simple fact early on.
"You broke it; you fix it" was their battle cry. And now, we have. And by "we" I mean the United States of America. Now we can think about leaving.
Obama couldn't make that simple adult assessment. He thought we shouldn't have been there in the first place, so we should have left immediately, regardless of the consequences to Iraq, or stability in the region. Can we afford that kind of childishness in the White House?
I don't think so.
I'd really like to know where Obama stands on other issues, but it's kind of hard to pin him down. He's refused to fill out the Project Vote Smart Political Courage Test which simply asks him to mark which issues he would support if elected. He was a bit more forthcoming earlier, when running for State Senate in Illinois. Then he did fill out the Political Courage Test. I read through it and found the budget and tax section very interesting.
State BudgetIndicate the funding levels you will support for the following general categories. Select one level only.
Maintain Status a) Agriculture
Greatly Increase b) Education (K-12)
Maintain Status c) Education (Higher)
Maintain Status d) Environment
Greatly Increase e) Health care
Maintain Status f) Law enforcement
Maintain Status g) Transportation infrastructure (highways, roads, bridges)
Slightly Increase h) WelfareState Taxes
Indicate the tax levels you will support. Select one level only.
Slightly Increase a) Alcohol taxes
Maintain Status b) Capital gains taxes
Greatly Increase c) Cigarette taxes
Slightly Increase d) Corporate taxes
Slightly Increase e) Gas taxes
Slightly Decrease f) Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
Slightly Increase g) Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
Slightly Decrease h) Property taxes
Maintain Status i) Sales taxes
j) Other
No Answer
No k) Do you support a flat tax structure for state income taxes?
Apparently he thinks you can greatly increase spending on education and health care simply by raising cigarette taxes.
Who knew it was that simple?
Much has been made of Obama's voting record. Over the 4 years he's been in the Senate, he's missed or skipped fully 40% of the key votes as identified by Project Vote Smart.
40%. That's 228 votes where he refused to take a stand or leave a record. Republicans shouldn't feel too froggy though; McCain was even worse, listed as not voting on 299 votes over the same period. I think we the people who pay both of these men their salaries ought to get a refund. That's just ridiculous, and another reason why I'll be wasting my vote on a third party candidate in November.
Katie has been going on for weeks about how we should all respect and admire Obama for being the first black man to win the nomination for President. In her latest post for the KNS, she continues to gush about how wonderful it is that a black man can win the nomination.
We get it. Obama is great because he's the first black candidate.
Now, can we discuss his actual policies, or should we all vote for him simply based on the color of his skin?
In just 72 hours we'll find out whether I'm a political prophet or just another crackpot. (If you're taking bets, pick the latter.)
Hillary has promised to release her delegates on Wednesday. I don't buy it. Barack has peaked and he's fallen short. As the glare increases, his thin resume won't even cast a shadow over the voters,and Hillary is out there making sure all of the super delegates know it. SHe's whispering that Barack can't win,and that to prevent another 4 years of Republicans controlling the White House, they'll have to take drastic action.
Barack's counter argument is much weaker. He has to convince the delegates that HIllary is an even worse choice, and that he can overcome this slump and win in November. Unfortunately, his choice of running mate, Joe, "Obama is clean and articulate" Biden isn't going to result in any massive bump.
Put yourself in the DNC's shoes. Do you nominate a candidate you know can't win, or do you play the game and give the nomination to a candidate who can?
What's the difference between professional and amateur journalism?
Critics of bloggers claim that bloggers and other amateurs don't follow journalistic standards of integrity. They don't fact check. They write stories based on single sources without looking for confirmation. They write with a bias. And they wear pajamas and blog from their mother's basement.
Professional journalists, on the other hand, have been trained in the rules and ethics of journalism. They write with clarity, free from bias, and they always check their facts for accuracy. They don't run a story until they have multiple sources. And they have no personal agenda.
The problem is that all of the above is utter hogwash. The only difference between professional and amateur journalists is that the pros get paid.
Period.
Eason Jordan. Jayson Blair. Dan Rather. Jack Kelly. Adnan Hajj.
The journalist Hall of Shame goes on and on, and these are just the cases where the journalists went so far that they got caught. What about things like the Edwards story, where the essential facts were known by the mainstream media, but they sat on the story until they were forced to cover it?
It's becoming abundantly clear that the news business has become more about the business than the news. The pressure to sell a story has become so great that journalistic standards are slipping all over the place. Take our own local paper, the Knoxville News Sentinel.
As regular readers know, I've worked with the Sentinel on a couple of projects and I've gotten to know some of the folks over there fairly well, and they are by and large a great group. Additionally, the KNS is adapting to the internet better than just about any other paper in the country. They are doing everything they can think of to embrace the changes in the news business, and they're doing a lot of things right.
But...
In early August, I wrote a post commenting on Jack Lail's column asking if it was safe to be a liberal in America, based on the shootings at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. I ended the post with the comment that Jack's story was one of the most commented and emailed stories that week. Now we have Katie Allison Granju posting a very inflammatory piece called Teenage Boys are Stupid, where she not only calls teenage boys stupid and idiots, but states flat out that any teenage boys who manage to be polite, respectful and accomplished "are doing so by fighting the natural impulses to be idiots that threaten to overtake them every day." In a second post, Ms. Granju tries to correct matters by reasserting that her headline was "hyperbolic," and that her central point was controlling access to guns.
The problem is that the headline was not the only place where she was "hyperbolic." The following is an edited down version of her comments regarding boys.
Teenage boys are stupidTeenage boys are idiots. And today's American teenage boys - whom our culture holds in a sort of manchild limbo long past the age they need to be doing some sort of hard work and earning their keep - are even bigger idiots.
Teenage boys are more impulsive and aggressive than any other group. WItness their penchant for crashing cars, diving headfirst into rock quarries, experimenting with drugs, and deciding to "play chicken" by draping themselves across dark country roads in an attempt to prove something to their similarly stupid peers.They are driven by sexual curiosity to the point of insanity, and they hold a misguided sense of immortality.
Many teenage boys are polite, respectful, accomplished individuals, but those of them who are are pulling this off are doing so by fighting the natural impulses to be idiots that threaten to overtake them every day.
There is, perhaps, no other single group in American life less suited to have access to handguns than teenage boys.
Teenage boys are stupid.
As you can see, that is most of her post and it is all hyperbolic. I love the bit about no single group being less suited to having access to handguns. I can think of several off hand. How about violent criminals? Or the insane? How about small children? People with shaky hands? And that whole bit about the only way teenagers can behave is by winning some sort of daily battle with the impulse to be an idiot?
Classic. I keep picturing the Lazarus twins from Star Trek battling forever in some neutral zone for control over a teenage boy's mind.
If an amateur blogger had written a post of that caliber, attacking another group using a similarly "hyperbolic" tone, that post would have been held up as an example of how bloggers are not professional. However, that post and its followup garnered over 100 comments, and linkage from prominent bloggers (Instapundit) and national websites (Wizbang). Page views are dollars in the web world, and Ms. Granju's post, like Jack's before hers, certainly generated page views.
The question is at what cost?
And I mean that. I don't care that both the House and the Senate are lead by Democrats. They've done almost exactly what I wanted them to do.
Here's a tip for all you budding legislators out there. If you want my vote., promise to do nothing. Don't propose or support any legislation. Oppose it all. Don't engage in debate. Just sit quietly and push the NO button for every vote. Filibuster everything.
According to the WSJ, the current Congress has passed the fewest laws and the most meaningless resolutions of any Congress in 20 years.
Well done Democrats. Your leadership skills have never been put to better use!
That phrase should never be uttered by a President or a Presidential candidate. If you don't have the stones to make the big calls, then get out of the way.
P.T. Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute, and I'm pretty sure he was underestimating. I got a promotional packet in the mail Thursday that had a scratch card with a key glued to it and a flyer that told me if the number on the scratch card matched the number on the flyer, I was a winner. It came from a local car dealership, Larry Hill Pontiac. Now I'm a suspicious character, especially when it comes to car dealers, who are the only group to score lower than Congress in popularity, and I was virtually certain that when I scratched off the ticket, I would find out I won, but that there would be a catch.
I wasn't disappointed. The scratch ticket matched the number on the flyer and I had won one of 5 possible prizes: a new Pontiac, an ATV, a 60" TV, a $1000 shopping spree, or $100. The first catch was relatively straightforward; I had to come down to the dealership and compare my "Winning Number" to the winning number on their board. Well, my son is about to drive and he's looking for a car, so I figured why not head down to the dealership and see what happens?
I knew I wasn't going to be able to get there until Saturday, so I had plenty of time to look over the contest flyer and see what catches I could find. It didn't take long to find a doozy hidden in the small print on a dark brown background. The fine print said that the Winning Number was not the one in the big red type, but a different number, a very small one placed inconspicuously in the address label. It also gave the odds of winning each prize and I was a bit surprised to see that the odds of winning the $1000 shopping spree were 27,346 in 27,350, while the odds of winning the other prizes were 1 in 27,350. Additionally, only one of the three grand prizes were to be given away. The person with the lucky number would have his choice of one of the top three prizes. The other two would go unawarded.
But it was those 27,000+ $1000 shopping sprees that stuck in my head. Even with a 1% return, that meant $270,000 (thanks to Stephen R for correcting my math) worth of merchandise was being given away by the dealership, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I read more of the fine print and found out that the shopping spree was limited to items on a specfic website, selectyourgifts.com, and that to claim my "free" gifts, I would have to pay $10-$30 shipping for each item I selected! That's pretty steep for shipping and handling, unless of course they had some fairly major gifts that would warrant such outlandish rates. Fortunately, the flyer gave me the web address, and said I could check out the available merchandise and preplan my purchases, so I checked it out.
Or tried to.
There was no preview function on the site. In order to look at their catalog, I needed a winning certificate number and password, and this struck me as kind of odd. Didn't they want people to be able to see what kind of prizes they could get for their winning certificate? What were they hiding? My curiosity was aroused; everything seemed to be pointing to some kind of scam, and I wanted to know more about it, so I started searching more diligently. I went to the Select Your Gifts website, and tried to use the link to the customer support site but the customer support site was down. I did a little research using the wayback machine and found out that the support site had been down since sometime between February and May of 2007.
That's a lot of down time. Now I was definitely smelling a rat.
Fortunately, the Terms of Service link worked, and that lead me to an email address, service@selectyourgifts.com, and I sent them an email request for a password to their store for preview purposes. They responded two days later that I needed to get a certificate and a password from the dealership.
They really don't want people looking at the prizes before they go to the dealership.
So I went to the dealership.
My doubts about the promotion were reinforced when I got to the dealership. I expected a high pressure come on since the event was winding down and I wasn't disappointed, but salesman Chris Dileo from Connecticut certainly was as I didn't follow his script. When I asked him about the sale, he told me that most of the cars being sold were owned by the bank, and they were trying to clear them out rather than have to take them to auction. He also let me know that he and his fellow salesmen were not part of Larry Hill Pontiac, but were a special team brought in strictly for this event. In fact, as soon as the sale was over, he was headed back home to Connecticut. I asked him about the details of the promotion and he confirmed that every number on the flyer matched the one on the scratch card and it was just a device to get people into the dealership. As soon as he realized that there was no commission waiting for him, he took off to rejoin the school of piranha circling in front of the dealership, and I went to find somebody who actually worked there.
I met Harold Posey, an older gentleman who referred me to Jeff Hill, brother of the owner. I told Jeff about what I'd found out, and asked him if he was comfortable using these deceptive kinds of tactics to get people onto his lot. He stared at me for a couple of minutes, and started to talk about understanding that I was upset that I hadn't won the grand prize. I told him that I'd come into the dealership knowing that I wouldn't win the prize, but was there primarily to find out whether he thought the promotion was in keeping with the ideals of the company.
He invited me back to his office and when we sat down, he began to grill me. Who was I? Where did I work? What kind of job did I do? Then he asked me the big question.
"What gives you the right to come in here and question how I do business?"
"I'm a potential customer and you invited me in when you sent out that direct mailing flyer."
Apparently he didn't like that answer too much, and he began to lecture me on how dare I come in and impugn the way he did business, and integrity was his watchword, and was I fishing for a lawsuit, and he scrupulously followed every law, and so on and so forth. But he never answered what I thought was a very simple question.
"Are you comfortable using a promotion like this one to bring people onto your lot?"
I wasn't sure whether his reaction was driven by guilt or by injured pride, but I knew I needed to look into this thing deeper. When I got home, I fired up the internet and started digging deeper breaking out the old Google Fu to see what I could turn up.
That's when I found out how much of a scam this promotion was. Apparently, Select Your Gifts has developed something of an unsavory reputation. It appears that the merchandise they send you for free (plus shipping and handling) isn't even worth the shipping and handling.
But I couldn't go just on anonymous posts on a website that is set up specifically to gripe about companies. I was only getting one side of the story. So I kept digging. I found the corporate website for American Sales Industries, the parent company for Select Your Gift. On the front page, I found the $1000 shopping spree certificates listed as product #08-66 and when I clicked on the link, the next page gave me the option to visit the store. When I selected that option, I was given a certificate number and password (both "sample") to use for a tour. At last, I had a way to preview the gifts and see for myself whether they were a bargain or not. I logged onto the site and looked around.
Fred Sanford wouldn't touch the stuff offered on that website. A few examples:
I chose the electronics category first, because I knew that I had to pay $10-30 shipping charges on each item, so I wanted to go for the most expensive toys I could find to maximize my free stuff. I found a 3 in 1 digital camera (product # 10-32), sporting a whopping .26 megapixels, similar to one I bought at WalMart as a stocking stuffer several years ago. Back then, I think I paid $15. Select Your Gift said it is worth $34.95 but they'd send it to me for free, as long as I paid, as long as I paid $20.95 for shipping and handling. On Amazon, an equivalent camera sells for $9.99.
Or how about the Meikai 50MM Camera Kit with Flash (product # 10-46) which the Select Your Gift website claims is worth $129.95, but I found here for 99 pence, or $1.85. But Select Your Gifts will send it to you absolutely free, just add $17.95 shipping and handling.
Okay, so the electronics were disappointing, but maybe there were good deals in other areas of the site. I checked out the Kitchen section. I looked at The Bacon Wave, (product # AS-155) a microwaveable bacon cooker. Amazon sells it for $8.98, listing the original price as $15.95. Select Your Gift lists its market price as $29.95, but will give it to you for free, just add $8.95 shipping and handling.
You get the point. The items available as "prizes" are cheap crap listed at inflated retail prices, then shipped at outrageous fees that are higher than the actual value of the prize. No wonder they don't want to let prospective "winners" see the site.
Sadly, it gets worse.
My google search turned up another site, called Premier Gifts. This site is also run by American Sales Industries, contains most of the same products (even the stock numbers are the same!), and you don't have to win anything in order to buy their products.
Why is this significant? Because the purchase price for the products on Premier Gifts is in most cases identical to the shipping and handling fees for the "prizes" at Select Your Gift.
In other words, that $1000 shopping spree is worth exactly nothing. Zero. You have won nothing. Everything you can buy with that certificate you can buy from the same folks for about the same price, or from other businesses for less.
It's a scam, plain and simple.
So I called them. Their website gave their corporate contact information and I called and asked for Steven Talerico, listed as the owner of the Select Your Gift website, and as Exec. Vice President and CEO of ASI Incentives. I asked Steven about the two websites, Premier Gifts and Select Your Gifts, and asked him how they could claim that the $1000 shopping spree prize could be valued at $1000 when anybody could buy the exact same merchandise for about the same price without the certificate just by switching websites.
Steven was bewildered, and told me he wouldn't know about that; he was "just a salesman," and he would transfer me to another person who could help. He tried to transfer me to Pat Talerico, the President and Chairman of the Board, but he couldn't get the transfer to go through. He finally transferred me to "Brian," who said he was the IT guy, and that he ran all of the ASI websites.
Brian told me that the "Premier Gifts" site was non functional, and wouldn't be online for at least a year. I tested it and it is fully functional. Brian also told me that the "Premier Gifts" site was just a mirror for the SYG site, and that everything on it would be changing as they got ready to launch. It isn't. The terms of service acknowledge the difference between the SYG site and the PG site; also, there are a few items available on the SYG site that aren't on the PG site, and vice versa. Brian also claimed that the PG site would be used to allow people who have expended their "prize" to continue shopping for gifts. They would be given private access to the site. Again, not likely. The PG site is hosted on Megalinx Mall, a site whose business plan depends on open access to all shops since profits are shared by all shops in the mall.
When I pointed out to Brian that the merchandise offered on the various sites was for the most part worth way less than the values ASI was assigning, and that in most cases, they were worth less than the S&H fees they were charging, he had no effective defense. He argued that if a customer got a better deal by a buck or two at Amazon, they'd lose whatever savings they saw in Amazon's S&H policy. Inadvertently, Brian admitted that the stuff on the SYG site was not worth anything more than the 'fees' they charged.
Here is the capper. Whatever company hosts this promotion must buy the certificates to give out. That's right. Larry Hill Pontiac had to pay ASI for the right to give their customers those worthless certificates.
I don't know whether that makes them the first victims in this scam or willing accomplices, and I guess I won't find out. Despite repeated attempts to pass this information along to Jeff Hill in person and via telephone, I have been unable to do so. And all I really wanted to do was to pass on what I've discovered about ASI, and ask him one last question:
"If you are willing to do business with a group like this, why should I trust you enough to buy a car from you?"
Betty Bean notes at KnoxViews that Knox County Democratic Chairperson Sylvia Woods wants District Representative Caroline Hindman to quit or be fired for being seen at the Republican Party Headquarters on election night, congratulating Fred Sisk on his victory.
Two important facts:
First, Caroline Hindman's mother works for Mr. Sisk, and they were there to congratulate a friend.
Second, let's be honest; there weren't a whole lot of congratulations to give at Democratic Campaign Headquarters that night, were there?
Apparently, Ms. Woods subscribes to the Randy Neal version of Big Tent politics. The tent is wide open as long as you toe the party line, and hang out with only those folks who are doctrinally pure.
It's interesting how far this type of exclusion is spreading on both sides of the political aisle. In a day when political candidates look and sound more alike than different, their partisan supporters are building high walls of overblown rhetoric, isolating themselves from possible contamination of thought.
The thought police? Don't bother, we'll do the job ourselves...
John McCain has talked with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili everyday. He's directly condemned the action by Russia, and called for it to halt. He's asked for UN and EU action to stop the Russian invasion.
Obama called for dialog, and then sank a short putt while on vacation in Hawaii. After checking the polls, Obama then came out for more forceful dialog with Russia.
Let me point out something. That scroll that unrolled onto the floor of the Olympic stadium? It wasn't real. It was a combination of LED screens and projection. The guy who ran around the top of the stadium? He was on wires. The children floating through the air as the Chinese equivalent of muses? They were on wires as well.
So a little girl lip-syncing a song in front of 91,000 people doesn't shock me.
It was a show, folks; you know, entertainment. It was designed to represent an ideal. The little girl was not in competition, she was there to further that ideal. The fact that one little girl lent her voice and another her face to that show is irrelevant.
Same goes for the fireworks. They did go off; and they did march to the stadium. The CGI footage was used so a helicopter would not be in the firing line trying to capture the shot.
Big deal. The effect worked both in real life and on TV.
Here's a clue. The explosions over Georgia right now are not CGI. They're real and people are dying. Why are we talking about silliness like this?
All I can say is he may be able to stop the seas from rising, but the man can't dance.
Last time I checked, their mandate was to "end war as we know it."
Well apparently we don't know much about war because they keep happening and the UN keeps on watching.
Unless of course Israel is attacked in which case the UN leaps to the defense of the attackers.
Is there a reason why we allow this useless parasitic organization of thugs and murderers to continue to meet on our soil? Kick the UN out of America, let them set up shop somewhere else, and on somebody else's dime.
And if anybody in the furutre ever tries to tell me about the good that the UN does, I will answer them with three words.
Rwanda.
Darfur.
Georgia.
Bah.
Today, John Edwards changed his act. He started the day imitating Bill Clinton, insisting he never had sex with that woman, and ended the day imitating Michael Jackson, insisting that "the kid is not my son." While subsequent events have made most of us believers of Michael Jackson (He doesn't make kids; he sleeps with them.) I don't think John Edwards is as reliable.
Edwards himself has a somewhat different opinion on his honesty. According to him, telling his wife but lying to everybody else was "99% honest" So repeatedly lying to the American public falls about the same place on the lying scale as telling your Aunt Millie that you really love the sweater that she knitted for you.
Hey, he could be right. After all, we should be used to politicians lying to us by now, right? And it's only about sex, right? Although I am having some trouble reconciling his claim that he doesn't love her and the child is not his with his apparently frequent visits to her place, as caught by the National Enquirer. Is he having a second affair, or does he often just pop in to visit ex lovers who've had babies with his former staffers.
Sorry, but I'm just not buying it.
I'll keep it brief.
There's a lot of talk going around about how the government of the City of Knoxville doesn't really give a damn about the citizens of Knoxville. Low voter turnout (19%) indicates that most Knoxvillians return that lack of interest.
Many "reformers" are bemoaning the election of Sherry Witt, Fred Sisk, and JJ Jones as signs that the voters don't care about the Black Wednesday scandal. This is simply not true.
More to the point, I heard Scott Emgee being interviewed on WNOX during the campaign process and he couldn't even articulate what it was that the Register of Deeds did. Sherry Witt was obviously the more qualified candidate. The same holds true for Fred Sisk, and for JJ Jones.
Stacry Campfield squeaked out a primary victory over Ron Leadbetter, ensuring that we will continue to have blog fodder for some time to come.
I just called Mr. Duncan's Washington office to see if he was participating in the extended session. One of his staff told me that he couldn't be there because he had pre-existing engagements, but he supports everything they are doing, and hopes to get there if at all possible. I hope his pre-existing engagements are actually more important than demonstrating the fecklessness of the Democrat controlled House. If it were me, I'd be there.
But they have his support, which is good for, well, something I guess.
Congressman Duncan, I'll make a deal with you. You go to Washington and participate in this debate, and I'll drive to the Capitol myself and cover your speech.
So let me get this straight. House Republicans have refused to go on vacation, and are continuing to work in the Capitol Building on trying to craft a comprehensive energy plan while Democrats sit at home on a 5 week vacation.
The Republicans are working in the House Chamber with the lights turned off, no cameras and no video feeds, all because the Pelosi Politburo wants to limit the amount of exposure the Republicans are getting. If reports are corrected, Democrats have actually called the police to come in and clear the press out of the House.
Wow.
How stupid can one woman be? Pelosi is doing a great job of costing Obama the election in November. Think of the campaign fodder! Hard working Republicans staying in Washington, trying to solve a major crisis that affects the lives of every American while Pelosi goes on a 5 week vacation. Do you get 5 weeks vacation? Even worse, she's trying to stifle the press and prevent them from covering the story. She controls the lights, the mics and the video feed, and apparently wants to control the print journalists as well.
How will that play come November?
And lets not forget, the Republicans do not have a majority in Congress. Pelosi has the votes, presumably, to quash any energy bill the Republicans come up with, so why did she work so hard to ensure that no energy votes made it to the floor. Again, think of the campaign fodder. Pelosi blocked the House from even voting on potential plans.
Not content with controlling the press, apparently she wants to control the debate as well. What was it we heard so long about the right being the ones who would stifle dissent?
In a few days, the Olympic Torch will be lit once again, this time in China. I try to watch every opening ceremonies simply because for the vast majority of the competitors, it is their only night of glory. Most will be going home without a medal, but on the night the Olympics open, they are all champions.
Looking back, three lightings stand out in my mind.
Third is the Winter Games in Torino. It was simply a stunning visual spectacle, worthy of the games.
Torino 2006
Second was the Barcelona Summer Games of 1992. Rather than the traditional parade of athletes, the folks of Barcelona decided to celebrate athletic excellence by demonstrating it. Everyone on the entire planet held their breath as that arrow arced through the sky, and when the cauldron exploded into flame, it was as if we had all made that shot. Glorious!
Barcelona1992
The Atlanta games came next, and I didn't think they could do anything to top Barcelona.
I was wrong.
They took the standard tradition of honoring past Olympic athletes and raised the bar by giving the torch to Mohammed Ali. Ali never embodied the meaning of the Olymp[ics more than when he took that torch. The wind was against him, blowing the flame away from the wick and up his arm. His body was failing him, Parkinson's robbing him of his trademark wit and flair. But his will never faltered, never failed. He endured the pain of the flames; he withstood the ravages of his body. He held the torch in place until at last the job was done and the cauldron was lit.
That endurance, that tenacity, that sheer will to overcome all obstacles no matter what, that's what the Olympics are all about.
Atlanta 1996
Rod Serling A man eating dinner gets a chance to meet his idol. But our idols often prove to have feet of clay when we see them up close. We come away disappointed, and feel cheated, almost deceived. That is, we do unless our meeting takes place...in The Twilight Zone.
Submitted for your approval: A Change in Attitude.
A guy was eating dinner in a restaurant one evening when he noticed his favorite movie star sitting a few tables over, quietly eating his dinner. Our man tried to contain his excitement at this opportunity to meet his idol, and he quietly motioned for his wife to look over at the other table.
"Look," he whispered, "It's Dash Riprock! Dash Riprock sitting in the same restaurant as I am! I knew he grew up here, but I never thought he'd come back. I have to go over and say hello!"
His wife was a bit more cautious. "Now dear, the man is trying to eat his dinner in peace. At least wait until he gets to his dessert!"
But our hero was too impatient to follow her wise counsel. "What if he skips dessert? What if somebody else recognizes him and I miss my chance. No, I need to go over there now. Besides, he's no different than the rest of us. He grew up a few blocks from my cousin's sister's boyfriend's bus driver. That makes us practically neighbors. He'll be happy to see somebody from the old neighborhood.
So our Hero gets up and walks over to Dash's table, where Dash is quietly chewing on a particularly nice piece of ribeye.
"Mr. Riprock, sir! It's an honor to meet you. I can't believe you're actually here. Dash Riprock! Action hero and Movie star. Sir, I am one of your biggest fans."
"Mmmh-hmrph." Riprock tried to speak around the wad of beef without showing it to the world.
"Yessir, your last movie, "Ramrock 12: The Penultimate Nightmare" was my favorite movie this year. I thought it was much better than number 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10. It wasn't quite as good as 1 and 11, but how do you top dropping an aircraft carrier over St. Peter's Basilica in order to save the world from a nuclear nightmare?"
"Mmmr-Glad you liked it." Riprock finally achieved the ability to speak somewhat intelligibly.
"Liked it? I loved it! And it was so believable, too. When you discovered that the Pope's illegitimate son was actually the evil mastermind behind the plot to corner the market on solar power, boy, I didn't see that one coming!"
"Well, if you liked that one, you'll really love "Ramrock 13: The Next New Beginning." I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I'll tell you this much. Not everyone who dies really dies."
"Awesome!"
Riprock forked another piece of steak and said "Well, it's been nice meeting you. I always like to talk to a fan, but my dinner's getting cold. Thanks for coming over to talk to me and I'll see you at the movies!" He put the steak in his mouth and began to cut another piece, obviously enjoying his dinner.
Our Heroes' smile dimmed. Riprock was giving him the brushoff? How dare he? Didn't he realize that his fans were the ones who bought the steak he was eating this very minute! He stalked back to his table.
"I never would have thought that Dash Riprock would go Hollywood on us!" he said. "He's forgotten where he came from! "
"What happened?" his wife asked.
"I went over to talk to him and he just brushed me off! Gave me some gladhanding little quip about his next movie and went back to eating just as if I wasn't there. The nerve of some people! If I didn't go to his movies, he wouldn't be able to eat that fat steak he was cramming into his mouth. I have half a mind to never see another Dash Riprock movie again."
His wife, who thought to herself that he may have been overestimating himself, kept silent.
When our Hero went to pay his bill, he discovered that Riprock had taken care of it for him.
"As if that makes up for his rudeness," he exclaimed. "He can't buy me the way he buys his cheap groupies. I said I wasn't going to watch any more of his movies and I meant it!"
Rod SerlingAnd so another idol falls, proven to have feet of clay. We raise our heroes up on pedestals, and then reject them when they fail to measure up to our expectations. But it doesn't have to be that way. All it takes is a simple change in our expectations.
A guy was eating dinner in a restaurant one evening when he noticed his favorite movie star sitting a few tables over, quietly eating his dinner. Our man tried to contain his excitement at this opportunity to meet his idol, and he quietly motioned for his wife to look over at the other table.
"Look," he whispered, "It's Dash Riprock! Dash Riprock sitting in the same restaurant as I am! I knew he grew up here, but I never thought he'd come back. I have to go over and say hello!"
His wife was a bit more cautious. "Now dear, the man is trying to eat his dinner in peace. At least wait until he gets to his dessert!"
But our hero was too impatient to follow her wise counsel. "What if he skips dessert? What if somebody else recognizes him and I miss my chance. No, I need to go over there now. He grew up a few blocks from my cousin's sister's boyfriend's bus driver. That makes us practically neighbors. But don't worry; I'll be polite!"
So our Hero gets up and walks over to Dash's table, where Dash is quietly chewing on a particularly nice piece of ribeye.
"Mr. Riprock, sir! It's an honor to meet you. I can't believe you're actually here. Dash Riprock! Action hero and Movie star. Sir, I am one of your biggest fans."
"Mmmh-hmrph." Riprock tried to speak around the wad of beef without showing it to the world.
"Yessir, your last movie, "Ramrock 12: The Penultimate Nightmare" was my favorite movie this year. I thought it was much better than number 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10. It wasn't quite as good as 1 and 11, but how do you top dropping an aircraft carrier over St. Peter's Basilica in order to save the world from a nuclear nightmare?"
"Mmmr-Glad you liked it." Riprock finally achieved the ability to speak somewhat intelligibly.
"Liked it? I loved it! And it was so believable, too. When you discovered that the Pope's illegitimate son was actually the evil mastermind behind the plot to corner the market on solar power, boy, I didn't see that one coming!"
"Well, if you liked that one, you'll really love "Ramrock 13: The Next New Beginning." I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I'll tell you this much. Not everyone who dies really dies."
"Awesome!"
Riprock forked another piece of steak and said "Well, it's been nice meeting you. I always like to talk to a fan, but my dinner's getting cold. Thanks for coming over to talk to me and I'll see you at the movies!" He put the steak in his mouth and began to cut another piece, obviously enjoying his dinner.
Our Heroes' smiled. "It was great to meet you too. I'm sorry for interrupting your dionner and thanks for talking to me. You're awesome!"
He went back to his table where his wife asked him what had happened.
"I went over to talk to him and even though he was obviously trying to enjoy his dinner, he took a few minutes to chat with me about his movies, and he even gave me a couple of hints about the next one! I knew he was a good guy. Guys from around here don't go Hollywood. They remember where they came from. I can't wait for the next movie to come out!"
When our Hero went to pay his bill, he discovered that Riprock had taken care of it for him.
"Doesn't that just top the cake?" he exclaimed. "He bought our dinner, even though I interrupted his. Dash Riprock is aces in my book."
Rod Serling What you have just witnessed happens a million times every day. Identical encounters leaving opposite impression based solely on our own expectations. We see what we expect to see and hear what we expect to hear. When we sit down to dinner, we eat what we brought to the table. That's true everywhere, especially here, in The Twilight Zone
Ok, that's all well and good, but why did I put this in the political category? Watch the following campaign video.
I watch it, and I see a video that makes fun of Obama's oratorical tendency to puff himself up. He's a brilliant speaker and can move a crowd like nobody's business, but I find it hard to swallow that the ocean stopped rising just because he won the Democratic nomination. He has a gift for hyperbole and this ad pointed that out.
That's what I saw.
David Gergen saw a racist attack on Obama.
As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background.
Mr. Gergen, I'm from Tennessee and I didn't get that. Obama has an inflated opinion of himself that has absolutely nothing to do with the color of his skin. The clips in that ad were not taken out of context and were not distorted. He did say those things. Obama's experience and credentials are a bit on the thin side, and for him to make pronouncements like he does cries out for lampooning.
So, Mr Gergen, what is you are bringing to the table?
On a local note, Mr. R. Neal watches the ad and sees the Anti-Christ.
I don't even want to know what Randy is bringing to the table...
So, the Department of Homeland Security has a policy that says if I travel out of the country, they have the right to confiscate my laptop, cellphone, and/or mp3 player, look through all of the contents, share those contents with other agencies, and return my stuff in a "reasonable" amount of time.
And they don't even need to suspect me of committing a crime.
So it looks like my choice in the upcoming election is to vote to lose my freedoms to creeping socialism or to creeping fascism.
Ron Paul is starting to look better all the time. He's just crazy.
Jack Lail asks this question over at KnoxNews.com.
Well, let's look at the record, shall we?
Four Presidents have been assassinated, three Republicans and one Democrat, Lee Harvey Oswald can not be described in any way as a conservative.
Looks like it's safer to be a liberal than a conservative in America.
Now before all the liberals howl with outrage, let me point out that this is obviously not a fair test. I've taken one small example of political violence, one certain to induce strong emotional responses, and I'm extrapolating a threat to a much larger group.
Sort of like what Jack is doing, isn't it?
Jack defends his piece by writing in the comment section:
I said that some in the national media (and not from obscure publications) are raising issues about being liberal in America.And I backed that up with examples.
But beyond that the links included in the article contain a range of perspectives.
Sorry, Jack, but I don't buy that defense. First, the title of the article says that a question has been raised, but the ones you choose to quote don't ask anything. The question, in their minds at least, has already been answered. It is dangerous to be a liberal, and it's all Rush Limbaugh's fault. Second, you claim that there is a wide range of perspectives linked, but you didn't quote any of them and you chose some pretty egregious examples to use, most notably the Guardian piece. Finally, the question is absurd on it's face. Trying to pull rational conclusions out of the irrational acts of an irrational man is futile at best and dangerous at worst. Programmers have a saying, "Garbage in, garbage out."Using Adkisson as a single data point to extrapolate a general trend is a wonderful example of that principle.
On the other hand, right now Jack's story is the 5th most e-mailed and 2nd most commented on the KNS website.