The Oddity Of A Term

A couple of years ago I noticed something that, I believe, Rush Limbaugh started as I heard it there first and not again for quite some time. Now I notice it leaking out all over the spectrum.

The term I'm speaking of is referring to the party on the Left as "the Democrat party" instead of the term they use to describe themselves, "the Democratic party."

The interesting thing about it was the way in which Limbaugh used it. He would emphasize the term in a way that turned it into a snide, back-handed way to insult the party. Over time the phrase started getting picked up by the rest of the pundits. I noticed Ann Coulter using it and then Sean Hannity and so forth.

Well, someone finally called the Right on this last night. Chris Matthews was talking about the budget and had Republican California Congressman Daryll Issa on as a guest and when he used the term in a long answer Matthews followed up by calling him on it. He made no bones about it and told Issa to save that sort of "Mickey Mouse" insult for stump speeches.

I was finally glad to see someone call this for what it is. The Right is masterful at setting the terminology of the political landscape. They know how to use a term endlessly until it becomes the norm. They've done it time and again.

The odd part regarding this one is that, it seems to me, that "the Democrat party" is actually more accurate than the actual phrase. If Republicans are in the Republican party shouldn't Democrats be in the Democrat party? Senator Barney Frank, who was the other guest on the show, chided Issa by feigning support of the term from his friend in the "Republicanistic party".

I suspect Limbaugh realized that the Democrats were getting a subliminal free right by having it associated with "democratic". That, of course, somewhat suggests that Republicans aren't very democratic.

The bottom line is that the organization is called "The Democratic Party" and that's what they should be called. Calling them anything else is simply an insult and it is about time someone got annoyed by this.

Sean Hannity's World Has No Recollection.

Had to laugh while driving around yesterday. I was taking my self-inflicted ritual of listening to Sean Hannity's show on the radio and couldn't believe the things I was hearing in just a few minutes of time I gave it.

First up was a bit of a surprise. One of the biggest surprises to come out of President Obama's speech was the official response to it provided by Louisiana Governor and potential Republican Party leader Bobby Jindal. If you haven't seen his rebuttal you need to stop what you're doing right now and watch it. It's painful. Anyone that responds to that sort of approach is in serious need of help. I can't think of a more condescending speech I've ever seen and that just touches the surface of all that was bad about it. John Stewart nailed it by comparing it similarly to Fred Rogers. The highlight was Jindal saying we know we can't trust government and that all we needed for proof of that was how they handled Hurricane Katrina... Is he joking? We can't trust government because his own party botched it so badly? Okay.....

Anyway, while virtually every pundit went on air shaking their heads at how bad this response was, including those at Fox News, here was Hannity--oblivious as usual to the world around him--hosting Jindal and praising his response.

The second item was the one big question Hannity posed to Governor Jindal. He asked, "Don't you agree that it's just wrong for a President to use fear to forward a political agenda?" Uh, Sean.... Where the hell were you for the previous eight years while your guy was perfecting this dark art?

His show is always good for a laugh and I'm continually concerned when seemingly intelligent people (not that many) call in to voice support for this guy. His facts stand up like dollar bills in a wind storm.

Obama May Be The Anti-Christ. The Signs Are There.

Two recent news stories have gotten me thinking that President Obama could indeed be the anti-Christ and I'm waiting for the media to catch on.

First, Obama is sworn in on January 20th and the very next day we see something that is almost incomparable in our history--US Airways flight 1549 crash lands in the Hudson river and all 155 people onboard survive. A plane, torn apart by large birds and impacting the unforgiving Hudson doesn't come apart but instead manages to stay afloat just long enough for all the passengers and crew to almost casually disembark from the plane to a myriad of conveniently waiting rescue boats nearby. This is the closest thing we've seen to Jesus walking on water. It was, dare I say, a miracle and not just any miracle. It was a miracle that brought the entire world into a feeling of unbridled euphoria at a time when uncertainty over our future had been dominating the headlines.

This morning, just one day after President Obama spoke to the nation about sweeping reforms and taking huge risks to right the course of the nation and the world economy, I awake to see that Turkish flight TK1951 crashed into a field covered with trees and buildings, broke into three pieces, had both its engines torn away and yet all 134 passengers and crew survived. Furthermore it all happened in Amsterdam--the closest city we have to Sodom and Gomorrah today. A miracle in the land of the Red Light District to raise the hopes of the region's largest sinners? Amsterdam is also the location of the Anne Frank House. Red light? Debauchery? Holocaust aura?

Aren't these exactly the sort of miracles the anti-Christ would deliver to the people to give everyone a sense of joy and divine influence all designed to lull us into a false sense of security before damning us all to infinity behind the gates of Hell?

I'm just asking.

I also find it strange that since Obama has gotten into office I haven't once had the urge to eat ice cream or to fantasize about being with Jennifer Connelly. How can that possibly be explained except as the coming of Diablo?

UPDATE: Early reports seem sadly to have been incorrect. Nine people, it's now reported, have died. Still a bit of a miracle none-the-less and Obama did just get into this role so maybe it was a glitch.

The New Old Economy For The Mentally Challenged

The latest revisionism going on by Republicans is a real eye-opener. Now the party line is that the economy taking a dive had nothing to do with George W. Bush. It was humming right along until the dreaded 110th Congress was elected in 2006. I've now seen several reliably full of crap Congressional members and pundits put this one forward. The only problem with it is that the economy was already dropping like a rock by the time they took over in early January 2007. When they came in the Dow was at just over 12,000 down from it's high of over 14,000. Nice try.

Rush Limbaugh Moving To New Zealand

The Republican party is imploding and it's getting messy. Primary conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh, after suggesting that the left-wing bloggers and media have misconstrued his comments, suggesting that he wants President Obama to fail has now, in no uncertain terms, stated that he indeed wants Obama to fail.

A short summary of his comments:

"I want everything he's doing to fail."

Referring to the stimulus package, "It's about remaking the United States of America without the Constitution as the guiding light." (this one really cracks me up as I have to wonder where the hell he was when the Bush administration was tossing the Constitution to the wind with the Patriot Act and with his own $800 billlion-dollar bail-out.)

"Of course I want this to fail. Of course I want Obama to fail. And after this stimulus package passes I want it to fail."


Isn't that just peachy? Here's the Right's leading messenger telling nearly half the country that they should be pulling for our President to fail. Meanwhile it seems he's forgotten the tongue-lashing he gave to anyone that even hinted that they might have wanted President Bush to fail.

All we heard about then was how unpatriotic and un-American that thinking was. Now that the shoe's on the other foot Limbaugh literally can't take it. If this administration gets eight years, I'm not sure his health will stand it.

You can listen to his very words yourself in a story on Huffington Post noting that arch-conservative Pat Robertson has even denounced Limbaugh's comments.

He made a grandiose statement that if it does work and does what it's intended to do then he's looking for property in New Zealand. Rush, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

FiOS Light Dimming Fast

All of the reasons that I left Verizon as a phone service a few years ago are returning while I deal with my new FiOS installation.

As I mentioned previously I was excited to move away from Comcast's Internet service (a service I had been with for well over a decade and a company I'd been with for over 25 years). I also valued the savings on combining Internet and TV services. That savings was enough to get me to freeze my DirecTV service for six months while I try out FiOS TV.

What I did not care for was the "Triple Play" of adding phone service to the account. Their idea of $33 being a big savings doesn't work for me when I already pay a third of that "discount" rate for my current phone service from another provider.

I told the sales person I didn't want phone service. He assured me that it would be no problem and to just tell the installer that I didn't want it. I did and the installer said that he'd inform the order company that I hadn't ordered it. He did run battery back-up to their box in my garage but did not run any wiring from the box into my phone lines.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that, not only did I have phone service on my account, but that Verizon had ported over my phone number to this service. When I called about this their only response was that they could cancel their service and that would have resulted in my losing a phone number (a good one) that I've had for many years. I instead had to have them do nothing while I initiated a port back to my original phone provider. I then called customer service about a credit.

Talk about ending up in hell. After several days and speaking to no less than 15 different people and six different departments I finally reached someone who put a note on my account to credit the phone service. Prior to this everyone I spoke to wanted to be helpful but simply wasn't. One person would listen and say, "I can't help you with that problem but let me transfer you to the department that can help." They'd transfer me only to have me reach another person who would tell me the same thing. Along the way I'd often get transferred to numbers that didn't work or have the call drop entirely.

It seems that, as usual, Verizon is so big and has so many departments and procedures that differ between them that customer service has little hope of being a positive experience. In the latest example of this I was informed that there are east and west coast retention departments and that each retention department is divided between copper and fiber departments. So, you have a one-in-four chance of reaching the right department. Thankfully I just found out that they've combined the copper and fiber groups so that now there's just two departments (east vs. west). A rep in the east retention department has now claimed to have taken ownership of this issue and says that I'll be credited once a new bill is created and that she'll move me from the current plan into a new "bundled" plan for Internet and TV that should cost me $79.99 a month plus the cost of my TV boxes and any movie channels.

For now I'm going to hang in at least long enough to see what the first bill or two looks like. At this point I'm expecting the worst.

Not Taken By Coraline

This past week I caught two movies. The first was the much-advertised Taken starring Liam Neeson. Unless you just never turn on a TV then you're more than familiar with the commercial showing Neeson talking to his panicked daughter hidden under a bed and telling her, "They're going to take you" just before she's snatched away by her feet.

The movie does a decent job of laying down the foundation of the storyline and pulling you into Neeson's world. He's been a part-time father who wanted to be more and now he's relegated to trying to parent from an ever-deepening rift. When his daughter announces that she wants to go to Paris Neeson's character, whose covert CIA work fills him with visions of terrorists at every turn, is dead set against the idea.

It's right at this point that you might want to leave the theater. The movie isn't going to get any better, smarter or quicker from here on in. What follows is a story of nearly universal improbabilities and ridiculous plot elements. Neeson also transforms from a meek over-the-hill push-over into the Terminator--able to kill in super-human fashion at every turn.

I'd have been happier if the captors killed the grating daughter, played by Lost alum Maggie Grace, and the movie then just ran the credits saving us all from the rest of it.

I also caught Coraline, a 3D stop-motion film, that very much has the look of, Nightmare Before Christmas. The makers made sure to hype the fact that Coraline is brought to you by the same people the gave us Nightmare. This is about as accurate as stating that an Apple sales clerk brought us the iPhone. The idea was to evoke Tim Burton without being able to actually use his name as he had nothing to do with this film.

Coraline, let it be said, is one of the very best looking films of this type I have ever seen. The visuals just pop off the screen and every shot begs you to take it all in as fast as possible. The 3D was also decently done though several reviews made it sound as if it has never been done better and that I can't agree with.

Characters manage to bring with them a similarity to expressive caricature only possible in animation and here it's used effectively. Be forwarned, this approach extends to the extreme including gratuitous shots of overly well-endowed and barely clothed characters. Many parents in the theater let out a notable gasp of embarrassment during one notable scene.

This is a story that so wants to be bigger than it manages to actually be. The mysterious beginnings are laid out in exquisite detail and then the story starts to grind to a slow stop. We're presented initially with an elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque puzzle that challenges your mind only to have it all just resolve with simplistic ease. Worse than that is that several earlier seemingly critical elements are either forgotten or quickly dismissed. It makes for a very unsatisfying conclusion.

There are some bright spots. The main character does win you over. Her sense of wonder with the world at hand brings back all the splendor of childhood innocence. The main antagonist, until revealed, quite convincingly fills you with a perfect sense of dread. Sadly these spots are just that--spots and not enough of them to cover the other holes.

A number of other viewers did seem impressed by it but not this viewer. It'll be hard to top the van Gogh-like imagery but that isn't enough to carry the film.

Two FiOS Updates

Yesterday I called Verizon to try and resolve the phone porting issue and, at the least, get all calls on that line forwarded to another number in our house. I know from past experience that once the port happens the forward just instantly stops working and it's all fairly seamless.

Anyway, I call them and reach a woman who listens and says, "I need to transfer you to technical support to get the forward going." So she transfers me. I sit on hold for 15 minutes and then the call just dies. Great. I call back. Oh, before I forget, their automated messages are annoying to no end. Several layers of questions to answer before you really get anywhere. So I call back and reach another woman who also tells me I need to be sent to technical support. I do get transferred properly and after a few minutes I speak with a guy. He listens, looks into a few things, and then says that he can't do anything and that I need to speak to the orders department. He transfers me. I get a woman who says she's in the orders department.

So here I am back in the orders department which, it turns out, is the same department I'd been in twice before. I explain everything again and she seems stunned by the porting issue. She formulates a plan. She wants to cancel the order and cancel the phone line. I know just enough about the process that I know this isn't good. Why? Once the order is canceled my phone number, which I've had for a decade and is a vanity number, will be lost. It will go back into the general pool of numbers. She gives me some song and dance that my other provider has a means for requesting that same number again. Right.

I tell her not to do anything. She then looks into putting call forwarding in place. She tells me that it'll cost me because the plan I'm on has no call forwarding and it's a monthly charge plus a one-time fee. What?! I need to pay to do something small that will help alleviate a problem they created? Nice. As I contemplate this she asks if I've already initiated porting the number back to the other provider. I tell her I had just that morning. She seems miffed by this and informs me that, as a result, the phone service is now on hold pending the transfer and nothing can be changed.

Bottom line for us is that we'll have to do without that phone for the week or so it'll take for the number to port over. I did hook up a phone line to the box in our garage and set up our voicemail and cleared out all the old messages. The new greeting tells people to just call our cell phones for the time being.

The last item is on the Internet side. When the sales guy called he mentioned all the various speed options for the Internet service. One jumped out at me. The default speed here is 20/5 meaning 20 Mbps download speed and 5 Mbps upload speed. For $12 more a month they have a 20/20 plan and for an online gamer that's a huge benefit. We do a lot of uploading. I tell the rep I want it. His response is to just tell the installer. I tell the installer and he says he has nothing to do with that and that I need to just call the order department to get that set up. When I first called I was told not to get it because the price was about to get much better and that, frankly, they couldn't even offer right then for some technical reason.

I mentioned it to the final person I spoke with above and she said that I can never get it as it's only for business customers. She said that their system won't even allow them to order it for residential customers.

Well, here's their own page about it and it doesn't mention anything about this "requirement". Why can't I get this service????

Sometimes Verizon Doesn't Get It

Okay, so FiOS has been working out quite well but today I got some disturbing news. We noticed that over the last couple of days that our main phone number (yes, I still have regular phones) was a bit quiet. I then called ViaTalk about it (they're our VoIP provider) and they informed me that Verizon, on their own, went ahead and just ported my phone number over for their phone service--a service I hadn't ordered and don't want.

So now I'm stuck for at least a week. I need to fax in a form to have ViaTalk re-port my number back over to them and that takes 7-10 days during which I'm pretty much without a phone. I'd just forward my calls but that requires a specific service level with Verizon that I don't have and am not about to add.

Many people suggested that this would not go smoothly and it appears they were right.