Dear customer dis-service hacks,
If I say "My problem is x. I've tried to fix it by doing y and z" and your so-called answer is "Try doing y or z," it means you're only adding to my fury not assuaging it... no matter how many times your script tells you to say that you "certainly understand my frustration."
Because if you really understand my frustration, then why don't you... I don't know... READ WHAT I (expletives deleted) WRITE!!!
And while you're at it, don't spend 10 minutes keeping me on hold assuring me "how important (my) call is to (you)."
If it's that important, answer the damn call. Rubbing it in my face that I'm still on hold because of your useless customer service only makes it worse.
Sincerely,
Brian
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Ayatollah Huckster riffs on 'less than ideal' gays
Social conservative Mike Huckabee recently likened gay marriage to incest and polygamy. Unlike some bigots, his argument was (only slightly) less absurd by his gracious omission of bestiality, pedophilia and necrophilia.
In earlier comments, the former and presumably future GOP presidential candidate declared, "Marriage doesn't mean any and everything we want it to mean. In all the recorded years of human history it has only meant one thing."
Huckabee's misrepresentation of history is either deceitful or a manifestation of shocking ignorance.
For many years, humans in some parts of this country defined civil marriage as the union of two people of the same 'race' (skin color) while humans in other parts of this country did not.
In this country at this time (though not necessarily in the past), the idea of a man marrying a 9-year old girl is generally considered repulsive; it other societies, it's accepted practice.
Civil marriage is an institution of man (ie: humans), by man and for man and can be changed by man at his whim.
Civil marriage means exactly what we the citizens want it to mean which is why it's defined by man's law.
And in all the recorded years of human history, acceptable norms of marriage have changed countless times and, to this day, remain very different across different societies.
According to many people, 'God's law' may have a very different notion of marriage. But Huckabee would do well to remember that since we're not a theocracy, the United States of America is governed by the laws of man not the laws of his or anyone else's deity.
I've read that every species of mammal has been observed to exhibit homosexual tendencies except pigs. So basically what the Ayatollah Hucksters of this country want is for humans to act more like... swine. And I thought man did a pretty good job of that already.
In earlier comments, the former and presumably future GOP presidential candidate declared, "Marriage doesn't mean any and everything we want it to mean. In all the recorded years of human history it has only meant one thing."
Huckabee's misrepresentation of history is either deceitful or a manifestation of shocking ignorance.
For many years, humans in some parts of this country defined civil marriage as the union of two people of the same 'race' (skin color) while humans in other parts of this country did not.
In this country at this time (though not necessarily in the past), the idea of a man marrying a 9-year old girl is generally considered repulsive; it other societies, it's accepted practice.
Civil marriage is an institution of man (ie: humans), by man and for man and can be changed by man at his whim.
Civil marriage means exactly what we the citizens want it to mean which is why it's defined by man's law.
And in all the recorded years of human history, acceptable norms of marriage have changed countless times and, to this day, remain very different across different societies.
According to many people, 'God's law' may have a very different notion of marriage. But Huckabee would do well to remember that since we're not a theocracy, the United States of America is governed by the laws of man not the laws of his or anyone else's deity.
I've read that every species of mammal has been observed to exhibit homosexual tendencies except pigs. So basically what the Ayatollah Hucksters of this country want is for humans to act more like... swine. And I thought man did a pretty good job of that already.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Another anti-green group hit job debunked (corrected)
Earlier this year, The Post-Star's anti-Adirondack Park Agency journalist Will Doolittle did a controversial pair of stories on the workings of the APA which uncritically relayed alleged, but completely unsubstantiated, collusion between the Agency and the non-profit Nature Conservancy.
The story was later accused of having many holes in it on the basis of some excellent follow up reporting by North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann. But that didn't stop The Post-Star from editorializing for the abolition of the Agency the day after the series ended.
It seems to be Groundhog Day.
Earlier this week, outspoken conservative New York Post state editor Fred Dicker ran a story claiming that the DEC "gave environmental org. [the Nature Conservancy] absurd $3.7M profit for forest."
The little-noticed green giveaway of taxpayer cash occurred in October 2008, as the state Department of Environmental Conservation paid The Nature Conservancy nearly $10 million for 20,000 acres of Adirondack wilderness that the group purchased for $6.3 million just a few years earlier, reported Dicker in The Post.
The article quoted Fred Monroe, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, Executive Director of the Adirondack Park Local Review Board and loud critic of all things related to environmental conservation.
As with the Doolittle story, it was left to NCPR's Mann, who doesn't seem to have an agenda except one of fair journalism, to provide the rest of the story.
In this piece, Mann pointed out that the appraiser quoted in Dicker's story claimed he was quoted out of context and that the appraiser said up front that he hadn't done any investigation into the specific case.
The New York Post quoted someone out of context? Shocking!
Further, NCPR's Mann points out that Dicker, like Doolittle, has been very critical of green groups and the state's management of Adirondack Park land. Crucially, Mann also notes that: The Post article also appears to confuse the collapse of the national housing and real estate market with the very different market for timber tracts.
I think it's a black mark that the Glens Falls' daily can be mentioned in the same breath as Rupert Murdoch's temple of yellow journalism.
We are very fortunate to have a responsible, play-it-straight journalist like Brian Mann who is willing to further examine these dubiously constructed stories and set the record straight where needed. This is why I continue to support NCPR and encourage others to do the same.
Note: Another myth debunked by NCPR reporting: the one that claims that the Adirondacks would see an economic boom if not for the 'fascist' regulations of state agencies. It cites statistics showing that counties in the Adirondack Park have comparable employment and poverty rates, household incomes, housing values and so on when compared to the rest of rural New York.
The story was later accused of having many holes in it on the basis of some excellent follow up reporting by North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann. But that didn't stop The Post-Star from editorializing for the abolition of the Agency the day after the series ended.
It seems to be Groundhog Day.
Earlier this week, outspoken conservative New York Post state editor Fred Dicker ran a story claiming that the DEC "gave environmental org. [the Nature Conservancy] absurd $3.7M profit for forest."
The little-noticed green giveaway of taxpayer cash occurred in October 2008, as the state Department of Environmental Conservation paid The Nature Conservancy nearly $10 million for 20,000 acres of Adirondack wilderness that the group purchased for $6.3 million just a few years earlier, reported Dicker in The Post.
The article quoted Fred Monroe, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, Executive Director of the Adirondack Park Local Review Board and loud critic of all things related to environmental conservation.
As with the Doolittle story, it was left to NCPR's Mann, who doesn't seem to have an agenda except one of fair journalism, to provide the rest of the story.
In this piece, Mann pointed out that the appraiser quoted in Dicker's story claimed he was quoted out of context and that the appraiser said up front that he hadn't done any investigation into the specific case.
The New York Post quoted someone out of context? Shocking!
Further, NCPR's Mann points out that Dicker, like Doolittle, has been very critical of green groups and the state's management of Adirondack Park land. Crucially, Mann also notes that: The Post article also appears to confuse the collapse of the national housing and real estate market with the very different market for timber tracts.
I think it's a black mark that the Glens Falls' daily can be mentioned in the same breath as Rupert Murdoch's temple of yellow journalism.
We are very fortunate to have a responsible, play-it-straight journalist like Brian Mann who is willing to further examine these dubiously constructed stories and set the record straight where needed. This is why I continue to support NCPR and encourage others to do the same.
Note: Another myth debunked by NCPR reporting: the one that claims that the Adirondacks would see an economic boom if not for the 'fascist' regulations of state agencies. It cites statistics showing that counties in the Adirondack Park have comparable employment and poverty rates, household incomes, housing values and so on when compared to the rest of rural New York.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
When 'Never Again' happened again
This essay is part of an occasional feature on this blog that presents compelling stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, IsraelStine and the Trumped Up Enemy of the Month. A list of all pieces in this series can be found found here..
Earlier this week marked the 16th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide during which at least 800,000 people were murdered. It was one of the world's worst atrocities of the century and certainly the worst to be covered during the age of cable news television. It occurred a year, almost to the week, after politicians and dignitaries in Washington solemnly promised 'Never again' while inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In 2004, I wrote a long series of essays on the occasion of the 10th anniversary which gave a lot of information and background about the genocide.
They are as follows (yes, I know the images do not work):
-Ten years later (an intro)
-Pre-genocide history
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and their role in the genocide
-International law and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions
Earlier this week marked the 16th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide during which at least 800,000 people were murdered. It was one of the world's worst atrocities of the century and certainly the worst to be covered during the age of cable news television. It occurred a year, almost to the week, after politicians and dignitaries in Washington solemnly promised 'Never again' while inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In 2004, I wrote a long series of essays on the occasion of the 10th anniversary which gave a lot of information and background about the genocide.
They are as follows (yes, I know the images do not work):
-Ten years later (an intro)
-Pre-genocide history
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and their role in the genocide
-International law and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
"CYOA" military provokes press freedom crisis in "Middle East's only democracy"
The Israeli right and its American apologists often refer to the country as the Middle East's only democracy as a sort of inoculation against the slightest suggestion that the actions of Jewish state's government are in any way less than perfect.
(e.g.: It's okay for Israel to commit war crimes or crimes against humanity because it's "the only democracy in the Middle East," just as it's okay for the US to do the same because it's the self-proclaimed "leader of the free world.")
Like the US, Israel is often caricatured as a monolithic state where everyone subscribes to the prevailing militaristic orthodoxy. However in both countries, the reality is much more nuanced. While they don't scream hysterically non-stop like the settlers and others on the far right, there is a not-insignificant percentage of civilized Israelis that support a rational, sensible path toward peace that acknowledges Palestinians as humans, a path that, unlike militarism, might actually have a chance to work.
This group of civilized Israelis is trying to do something controversial: hold the country's security establishment accountable. The establishment has responded by provoking a freedom of the press crisis in "the Middle East's only democracy."
Alternet has a remarkable story on the scandal.
Anat Kam is a 23-year-old Israeli journalist who allegedly procured confidential documents while she worked in an Israeli Army general’s office during her mandatory military service. The documents revealed that in 2007, Israeli Army forces assassinated a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member in direct contravention of a Supreme Court order that banned the killing of wanted militants if there was a reasonable chance to arrest them first. Two top Israeli military officials, former Central Command Chief Major General Yair Naveh, Operations Directorate Head Major General Tal Russo, and Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who directed the assault on Gaza in 2008 and 09, are said to have been incriminated in the documents.
Kam allegedly photocopied the documents and passed them along to the security reporter for Haaretz, one of Israel's leading daily newspapers, which published an article based on them.
This aroused the ire of the Israeli military, which since 1988 has demanded that journalists submit all "material relevant to the security of the state" to the military censor for review, and which compels all journalists seeking an official Israeli press card (GPO card) to sign on to the censorship policy. By all accounts, Blau submitted his article for review to the censor and was cleared for publication.
Kam was detained and placed under house arrest last year, though news of this only started coming out in the last few weeks. She is now on trial for treason and espionage and faces up to 14 years in prison.
Meanwhile, the journalist who published the article is hiding in London. He is terrified to return to Israel. His hard-hitting reports on Israeli Army abuses in the occupied West Bank have made him the bane of the military establishment. "At least ten journalists inside Israel have told me [Blau] is the real target," a reporter working in Israel and Palestine told me. "And everyone is saying they’re simply prosecuting Kam to make an example out of her."
The Israeli Shin Bet security service secured a gag order on the media from an apparent rubber stamp judge who had spent almost her entire career in military courts. The order, issued in January, forbade journalists and bloggers in Israel not only from reporting on the details of Kam’s prosecution, but from even acknowledging that she had been detained. A reporter I spoke to was publishing stories on the scandal under an anonymous byline. The New York Times has done the same, meaning even Ethan Bronner might be afraid of the Shin Bet.
The gag order was so secret that even the Speaker of the Knesset was reportedly not allowed to see it.
Perhaps this is the "Middle East's only democracy"'s own ironic way to mark the 40th anniversary of the US Pentagon Papers.
Note: Please see the Alternet story, which links to a number of other relevant places.
(e.g.: It's okay for Israel to commit war crimes or crimes against humanity because it's "the only democracy in the Middle East," just as it's okay for the US to do the same because it's the self-proclaimed "leader of the free world.")
Like the US, Israel is often caricatured as a monolithic state where everyone subscribes to the prevailing militaristic orthodoxy. However in both countries, the reality is much more nuanced. While they don't scream hysterically non-stop like the settlers and others on the far right, there is a not-insignificant percentage of civilized Israelis that support a rational, sensible path toward peace that acknowledges Palestinians as humans, a path that, unlike militarism, might actually have a chance to work.
This group of civilized Israelis is trying to do something controversial: hold the country's security establishment accountable. The establishment has responded by provoking a freedom of the press crisis in "the Middle East's only democracy."
Alternet has a remarkable story on the scandal.
Anat Kam is a 23-year-old Israeli journalist who allegedly procured confidential documents while she worked in an Israeli Army general’s office during her mandatory military service. The documents revealed that in 2007, Israeli Army forces assassinated a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member in direct contravention of a Supreme Court order that banned the killing of wanted militants if there was a reasonable chance to arrest them first. Two top Israeli military officials, former Central Command Chief Major General Yair Naveh, Operations Directorate Head Major General Tal Russo, and Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who directed the assault on Gaza in 2008 and 09, are said to have been incriminated in the documents.
Kam allegedly photocopied the documents and passed them along to the security reporter for Haaretz, one of Israel's leading daily newspapers, which published an article based on them.
This aroused the ire of the Israeli military, which since 1988 has demanded that journalists submit all "material relevant to the security of the state" to the military censor for review, and which compels all journalists seeking an official Israeli press card (GPO card) to sign on to the censorship policy. By all accounts, Blau submitted his article for review to the censor and was cleared for publication.
Kam was detained and placed under house arrest last year, though news of this only started coming out in the last few weeks. She is now on trial for treason and espionage and faces up to 14 years in prison.
Meanwhile, the journalist who published the article is hiding in London. He is terrified to return to Israel. His hard-hitting reports on Israeli Army abuses in the occupied West Bank have made him the bane of the military establishment. "At least ten journalists inside Israel have told me [Blau] is the real target," a reporter working in Israel and Palestine told me. "And everyone is saying they’re simply prosecuting Kam to make an example out of her."
The Israeli Shin Bet security service secured a gag order on the media from an apparent rubber stamp judge who had spent almost her entire career in military courts. The order, issued in January, forbade journalists and bloggers in Israel not only from reporting on the details of Kam’s prosecution, but from even acknowledging that she had been detained. A reporter I spoke to was publishing stories on the scandal under an anonymous byline. The New York Times has done the same, meaning even Ethan Bronner might be afraid of the Shin Bet.
The gag order was so secret that even the Speaker of the Knesset was reportedly not allowed to see it.
Perhaps this is the "Middle East's only democracy"'s own ironic way to mark the 40th anniversary of the US Pentagon Papers.
Note: Please see the Alternet story, which links to a number of other relevant places.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Safety claims of hydraulic fracking called into question
Many people in southern New York are concerned about a new natural gas drilling project in the Marcellus Shale which involves the controversial procedure known as hydraulic fracking. It's controversial because critics claim that it threatens the drinking water supply. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation claims that very few problems are associated with fracking but a good investigative piece in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin seriously calls those claims into question.
Monday, April 05, 2010
MLS website disaster
For a league run almost entirely by PR hacks, it's little surprise that Major League Soccer tries to spin and control information more tightly than the Kremlin. In that context, the recent launch of its new website was a PR catastrophe for a league hoping to capitalize on a World Cup year. The Fake Sigi blog has a revealing analysis of the clusterf**k. Perhaps the most revealing thing of all is that despite the length of the piece, there were still screwups he left out.
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Fools to the left of me, jokers to the right
Facing a gargantuan $9 billion deficit and a budget due today, legislative misleaders have decided to send their members on a week-and-a-half vacation.
Senate Democratic boss John Sampson pooh-poohed critics with the same excuse legislative misleaders proffer every year: better to have a good, late budget than a bad, on-time budget. I guess it never occurred to these April Fools that it's their JOB to give us a budget that's both responsible AND on-time.
I nearly snorted soda out of my nose laughing at Sampson's excuse. The budget's always late but when was the last time the legislature gave us a good budget? If we'd actually been given these mythical "good, but late" budgets in the past, we wouldn't be in quite the fiscal mess we're in now.
By being the latest misleader to pose the false choice between a responsible budget and an on-time budget, Sen. Sampson and his colleagues don't seem to be aware of the responsibilities of the job, so let me enlighten him.
Maybe if the legislature had focused more on making tough budgetary decisions in the last few months, rather than micromanaging restaurant chefs' use of that dangerous toxin table salt, April Fools like Sampson wouldn't have to continually offer us the false choice between a responsible budget and on-time one. Real leaders would be capable of doing both.
But since Sen. Sampson is so blase about deadlines, perhaps he and the rest of NYS government won't mind if I wait until April 20 or May 10 or whenever the legislature gets around to doing its job and pass a budget before I send in my tax return.
It seems a cruel irony that New York's budget is due on April Fools' Day. Year after year, the joke's on us.
Senate Democratic boss John Sampson pooh-poohed critics with the same excuse legislative misleaders proffer every year: better to have a good, late budget than a bad, on-time budget. I guess it never occurred to these April Fools that it's their JOB to give us a budget that's both responsible AND on-time.
I nearly snorted soda out of my nose laughing at Sampson's excuse. The budget's always late but when was the last time the legislature gave us a good budget? If we'd actually been given these mythical "good, but late" budgets in the past, we wouldn't be in quite the fiscal mess we're in now.
By being the latest misleader to pose the false choice between a responsible budget and an on-time budget, Sen. Sampson and his colleagues don't seem to be aware of the responsibilities of the job, so let me enlighten him.
Maybe if the legislature had focused more on making tough budgetary decisions in the last few months, rather than micromanaging restaurant chefs' use of that dangerous toxin table salt, April Fools like Sampson wouldn't have to continually offer us the false choice between a responsible budget and on-time one. Real leaders would be capable of doing both.
But since Sen. Sampson is so blase about deadlines, perhaps he and the rest of NYS government won't mind if I wait until April 20 or May 10 or whenever the legislature gets around to doing its job and pass a budget before I send in my tax return.
It seems a cruel irony that New York's budget is due on April Fools' Day. Year after year, the joke's on us.
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