Faster, better…

Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

Sign up for monitoring or pay exorbitant fees, outrageous markup. “That’s just the way it is in our business sir. We help our customers.”

Like hell.

You have a local alarm system installed in your home. You paid about $1500 for it. The alarm company you purchased it from went out of business. One element of the system is malfunctioning. You misplaced the manual. The beeping is driving you crazy.

My first idea was to go through the Yellow Pages. I like to try and focus on local business so I start there. The first company doesn’t call me back and when I call them the guy on the other end is too busy to talk to me. “Click.”

The second company, up front, makes it CLEAR they are selling subscription service and isn’t interested in servicing a local system. $85 per hour and almost twice what I first paid for the part five years ago. Total cost for what will amount to a 30 minute visit – about $300.

American business hasn’t figured it out yet. There are all kinds of customers. Maybe the ones like me are in the minority but wouldn’t it pay in the long run to help folks where you could? Holding out for boom economy rates in a busted economy is a sure sign the business just doesn’t get it. There is more to staying in business than sticking to a script. And they probably wonder why business is bad!

Apparently I will not get help with a local alarm system in Calvert County Maryland installed by a long-gone company even though the system is a well-known GE product still in use in hundreds of thousands of homes. Why? Because business insists on selling you something you cannot afford and committing you to a contract you do not want – whether you like it or not. When you stick to your guns they price your work as if it was a fine or punishment for not cooperating with the sales pitch.

All I need is a smoke alarm alarm replaced and a new manual for the control unit. Thirty minutes. Heck maybe a photocopy of the manual will allow me to bypass the malfunctioning element.

The alarm industry in America is steadfast! No subscription you pay – big time.

Should a student violate the order, school district officials could find themselves in legal trouble. Judge Biery ordered that his ruling be “enforced by incarceration or other sanctions for contempt of Court if not obeyed by District official sic and their agents.”

via Federal Judge Prohibits Prayer at Texas Graduation Ceremony – FoxNews.com.

(It’s a sad day for America, or is it spelled Amerika? I’m sorry but there are now a majority of people offended and suffering irreparable harm in Texas. One fringe family has a smile on their face. I hope their kid has his way and later discovers that the government won’t care for or guarantee  his idiosyncratic ideologies every time. This ruling is ridiculous.  It’s not Constitutinal and it is AMORAL. America is feeling more and more like Amerika.)

People pretty much boat as they please regardless of safety concerns. This afternoon looking out over  the Bay I’ve seen an over-loaded boat towing two kids on a tube, two children bow riding – legs over the bow holding on to the rail while the boat came on plane, PWCs in swimming areas near swimmers and paddle craft, paddle craft occupants in deep water with NO life jackets.

It’s no wonder the first two boating deaths of the season were off Breezy Point. Folks around here just haven’t the sense, have not taken a boating safety class, or we are just too far off the beaten path of law enforcement. Like I said, the wild-wild west of the Chesapeake.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) announced Tuesday that the state has formally applied for federal funding toward high-speed rail projects.

via Martin O’Malley applies for federal high-speed rail funding | TBD.com.

(Your progressive Democrats at work. This is funny money. It’s borrowed. It isn’t real. The money is part of the outrageous national dept we cannit repay without harsh cuts and a major change to our way of life. O’Malley and his cronies in Annapolis and Washington continue their spending spree despite the writing on the wall. We can’t afford this now.

There is no money there to grant. It is nothing but feel-good politics, smoke and mirrors.

Get your hands out of my wallet.)

WASHINGTON — One Maryland lawmaker is hoping steeper fines may get utilities to work faster to get the power back on, or even prevent the outages in the first place.

Maryland Senator Brian Frosh felt a provision to fine utilities $10,000 a day for each violation wasn’t enough.

His amendment would allow the Public Service Commission to fine up to 2 and a half percent of their gross revenue, which is equivalent to tens of millions of dollars.

via WTOP.com – Md. Senator proposes steep fines for outages.

(Great idea! Barely Gas & Electric left our power out 22 hours last month. The first 14 started late in one day and wasn’t fixed until the next. The ONLY thing wrong was a tripped switch on a transformer. It took one lineman five minutes. I’m just guessing but I suspect it had something to do with calling people out on overtime or some other financial reason. Only four houses were out on this circuit so they probably figured we could wait. Our money must not be as good as the rest of the customers.

I recall in California that the Public Utilities Commission went after PG&E for not adequately maintaining infrastructure after long outages. Power outages have been an issue for us for years on the BG&E grid. It’s very frustrating.)

When news surfaced that radical UK cleric Anjem Choudary was going to stage a Shariah4America rally at the White House on Thursday, it’s fair to say many expected some explosive video to surface. Especially considering counter protesters planned rallies, too. Choudary canceled his rally. The counter protesters did not. At least one shocking video still surfaced.

via Liberal Site Tries to Tie Shocking Muslim-Taunting Video to Respected Conservative | The Blaze.

(This is REAL CHRISTIAN HATE.  So-called believers taunting a prayerful Muslim. This particular Muslim visits the White House a few times a week and prays.  He hurts no one.

Along comes a group of religious zealots of another faith and taunts the man by throwing crosses at his feet. Do you think for one minute that after everything Jesus endured on Earth that he would condone or approve of the kind of behavior exhibited yesterday in Washington D.C?

Perhaps you call yourself a Christian. Examine the tenants of your faith and the behaviors your church leaders ask you to emulate to promulgate your faith. Do those behaviors make sense?

As a Catholic, I have been on the receiving end of religious hate. Tracts from an intractable Christian sect placed Catholic hate literature on my car, that was parked in a parking lot where I worked. No one else’s car had the pamphlet. Just my car.  I tore up the pamphlet and called the State Police and discussed the personal insult with my Priest.

In case the hater’s missed it, in the United States of America, the country  was created with the understanding that citizens could worship as they pleased. Whether I believe in your faith or not does not give me the right to treat you badly because of my disagreement.

A suggestion is that whoever these “Christians” were that they refrain from publicly humiliating others and confine their hate to their private prayer.)

But that temporary solution will not stop some politicians from using federal and state budget cuts as a wedge to divide public employees from collective bargaining, said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Mechanicsville.

via Maryland’s Hill Democrats Join Federal Workers’ Rally – Southern Maryland Headline News.

(Steny Hoyer does NOT speak for the conservatives of Southern Maryland. This aggressive behavior of Hoyer’s, of stirring up Federal workers as a way to divide the people of the USA is reprehensible.

Even Hoyer’s hero, FDR, understood that collective bargaining by any government employee was fraught with potential abuse and corruption.

Federal employees already have a Constitutional guarantee of employment that the pubic work force does not enjoy. Their salaries are now far above those salaries in the public sector. The public they “support” according to the progressive laborer in the article has benefits that far transcend most in the private sector and those BENEFITS are paid by you and me – all the while we try to survive in this recession. They will want more while we get less. That’s not support.

Progressives are on the march and at the head of the line is Mr. Hoyer. The progressives in Maryland, through GERRYMANDERED districts again elected this progressive into office.

Marching federal workers pretend I’m on the street corner as you shout your venomous hateful rhetoric. I am turning my back to you.)

I received an email from our Tax and Spend State Controller trying to justify a strange and new “minimal cost to the taxpayer” financial-literacy initiative up for consideration in Annapolis. Apparently Peter Franchot and the Democrats believe students should be taught financial literacy in the schools.

Isn’t that a lot like asking the fox to teach hen-house security to the chickens?

“Predictably, opponents of a financial literacy course have tried to defeat this bill by inflating the “fiscal note” — or the estimated costs of implementation. As Maryland’s Chief Fiscal Officer, I fully understand that every dollar counts in these tough fiscal and economic times, and would not be supporting an initiative that would place a heavy burden on Maryland taxpayers who are already struggling in the aftermath of our economic crisis. That is why I want to assure you that a statewide financial literacy course can and will be implemented at a minimal cost to the taxpayers.”

The progressives in Annapolis brought the state financial crisis down upon us by failing to mind their spending habits. Franchot presided over it all the while claiming everything was OK and he was on the job! All of his self-aggrandizing emails pretty much are of the same tone.

Parents are responsible for sending their children into the real world with good financial habits. The state has NO SUCH MANDATE. Most conservatives like myself probably read Mr. Franchot’s progressive sell on these inititives and reacted as he would indeed predict:

“What we as a state cannot afford are the fiscal and social costs of sending our children into the real world without the tools they need to make responsible financial decisions. “

I’m thinking that any financial-literacy course work should be directed toward our teachers, school boards, school administrators, and last but not least our law makers. Perhaps even the State Controller? Mr. Franchot, the State is not the cradle-to-grave, omnipotent purveyor of knowledge. Historically our families have relied upon teaching PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to get these messages across, something we now lack because progressives have created an entitlement state!

Colleges have courses in personal finance as ELECTIVES. Perhaps the kids can make their own selection then. Why would any financially savvy lawmaker try to sell his constituents on new school spending when our schools are already at financial TILT.  Minimal expense to taxpayers? Excuse me?

How many homeowners in Maryland have seen their PROPERTY TAXES DOUBLE with schools already taking over one-half of the total tax bill? Mr. Franchot are you kidding? You are completely and utterly financially unaware of the pressure your progressive Maryland government has put on the taxpayer of this state. Our heating fuel rates are the highest ever and show no signs of going down. Electricity rates have skyrocketed. Food prices are going up. Despite all of these issues local school districts are building palatial new schools. Calvert County is a prime example.

Mr. Franchot you are financially clueless and completely irresponsible. Why you were reelected is beyond all comprehension.  According to you there is bi-partisan support:

“We’ve had great bipartisan backing for our financial literacy legislation, but we need your support to make sure we pass the final hurdle. It is so important that you make your support heard by contacting your legislators to encourage them to support Senate Bill 262 and House Bill 127.”

Excuse me all you new Republicans in Annapolis. Voters did not put you there to spend more money. Were you listening during the elections? What you should be doing is sharing with all of your constituents why new spending is bad for Maryland and why progressives like Franchot are serving their elite best interest and not ours. Franchot believes Marylanders are sheep and he is the sheep herder.  Conservatives understand that man can govern and be responsible for himself.

Parents where are you on this? have you ever thought to involve your young people in after-school activities that teach financial responsibility? I’d bet your church may even have a free course.  You are responsible for your children NOT the State of Maryland.

I heard Mr. Lollar speak at the Solomons Tea party event. He impressed me then as the man could

A new Day for Maryland - Charles Lollar for Congress

put Steny Hoyer behind us. Hoyer showed his true colors when he blindly followed the rest of his party down the road of reckless spending and economic endangerment. Charles Lollar will return honor to the Fifth Congressional District. He is an honorable man. Charles Lollar has MY vote this November.

Charles Lollar understand military issues so he will more than adequately represent Southern Maryland’s interest in the jobs the military brings to our area. The incumbent’s media blitz is focused on keeping Maryland’s military related jobs.  Charles Lollar served our country in the United States marines. He can do the job far better than the incumbent ever has.

Before you even think about a “safe” vote for the incumbent take the time to get to know Charles Lollar. Visit his website. Talk to others about him.  The incumbent and his party drove us to recession over many years. Hoyer cannot talk about anything else because bragging about how you have endangered the country probably isn’t a good idea.

I recommend a vote for Charles Lollar to restore Maryland and our Congress.

Less than a year ago I purchased a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse combination from the Office Depot in Prince Frederick, MD. I did not have the product long when the wireless receiver stopped functioning. The receiver is flimsy. When it is bent, even a small amount, the internal USB connections fail. I went back to the store and asked if I could replace the receiver. They said no and suggested I buy a new keyboard. I did so.

The employee suggested that I purchase an extended warranty. That was my big mistake. It had been maybe seven months and the same thing happened to the receiver – again.  But wouldn’t you know it. I could not find the receipt that had my extended warranty information. I don’t recall anyone telling me at the time that I had to register my warranty or explaining how it worked. I made the foolish mistake of making an assumption that a company as large as Office Depot would have all of its customer service i’s dotted and t’s crossed. Not so.

When the second keyboard failed I drove back to  the Office Depot. The salesman remembered selling me the agreement and the keyboard! What luck. But then, he said since you don’t have your receipt I have no way of looking up your warranty. He called the manager. The manager said the same thing and told me to call the warranty people. He walked off. No offer to call the warranty people.  I was stuck. I needed a keyboard and mouse that night so I purchased a cheaper wireless set. No I didn’t buy an agreement.

The following day I looked up the customer service number for Office Depot and made the call. Guess what. Their “agents” are outsourced to an off shore company. I knew I was talking to someone without an invested interest in making me happy.  This rep was polite and gave me a telephone number for the warranty department.

By now I have 1.5 hours of my time involved in this fiasco. I call the warranty department only to find out that unless I registered my warranty and my receipt they had no way to look up the information. But wait, it gets better. I have one of those store rewards cards. They couldn’t use that to find my sale with the warranty attached. By now I’m getting suspicious. Was the system designed this way because they know a certain amount of people will fail to save a receipt or register their product?

But I digress. It turns out that after fourteen days you cannot return a product to the store. After two weeks you are covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. That means that even though I paid extra to replace this keyboard when it went bad I would have to wait one year from the date of purchase to get any satisfaction. I did try to ask Logitech by email if I could replace the receiver and never recived an answer. Logitech is not what it used to be apparently.

It never ceases to amaze me how some retailers just don’t get it.  Customer no-service is alive and well ant Office Depot. I clearly didn’t understand at the time the terms of this useless agreement I paid good money for. Office Depot made out like a bandit.

The truth is at the right retailer I strongly believe in extended warranty for the right product. Having worked as an Assistant Manager for a West Marine store I can say that West Marine gets it. Their no-hassle guarantee should be explored by Office Depot. Office Depot has lost my business over this. The only thing I have left is to vote with my feet and my wallet.

In order to pursue this I have to go back through months of credit card receipts to identify the date when I purchased the product so the unhelpful warranty folks can put me through to the receipt look up people. They can somehow find my extended warranty if I jump hoops. When I am able to get the date and I file the claim I still have to wait to receive either a check or a gift card. The store can’t help me. Why didn’t the first salesperson tell me to try Logitech? Why didn’t Logitech return my email the second time around? I’m also done with Logitech.

Any time you purchase a warranty:

1. Save your recipt

2. Understand the terms

3. Imagine what could happen under the terms.  When you do not like the scenario do not buy the warranty.

4. Follow through and register your warranty. Don’t rely on the retailer. They are probably going to cross their fingers and hop you forget and that you lose your receipt. They make more money that way.

How many times have you had to apply for the Homestead Tax Credit? How many times have you forgotten to send the form back in a tax year? How much have you over paid in state property tax to the benefit of our spendthrift legislature?

I am furious that I have to keep filing this status while I am STILL in the home and paying property taxes for it. We almost missed our application deadline. It was in one of those envelopes that got over looked during the time of my serious illness last year. It occurred to me that the spendthrifts are HOPING that many homeowners FORGET to apply for this credit and thus LOSE the exemption. You think?

Incredulity is the word for finding that the online application did not work for me at the state website. A match between my property tax account number and access number does not work as of February 11th. The letter says I have sixty days.

Warning to all Maryland property tax payers. SEND IN YOUR HOMESTEAD TAX CREDIT APPLICATION. The state is banking on you that you don’t. Pun intended.

Please note that a family member also living in Maryland sent an ONLINE and a MAILED application and NO HOMESTEAD CREDIT was applied! My relative paid the state an extra $1000 in state property taxes. We applied last year and the year before that. Both times online. As taxpayers we should NOT tolerate this kind of incompetence. My relative FINALLY made a personal visit to a state tax office and offered a prayer to the Almighty.

Last year my gas company told me I couldn’t have the guaranteed lowest price of oil unless I signed up for for a monthly payment plan. In the face of HUGE price increases at the time I accepted. It was really extortion and and here’s why:

1. The oil company filled my tank at the end of Winter when we had typically stopped using oil heat. They had NEVER delivered this late ever. Why did they? Because they could deliver at a much higher price to the consumer and then themselves take advantage of much lower home heating oil prices in the Summer months.

2. Once the company’s tanks were full at the lowest prices they could find they were ready to change the steadily climbing oil price we always see in the heating season. Sure enough I have been sitting on a full tank of heating oil since late March I believe. (Purchased at a Winter price) I usually purchased refills in September before the prices really started to climb. Funny how the oil company never refilled in the Summer months so we could save a little.

3. The price of home heating oil is steadily climbing as predicted and I won’t need oil now until the PEAK of the heating season. I will be paying the higher price the company dreams up for “guaranteed price customers.”

4. Whether I choose to use oil or use wood, I am now locked out of saving monthly becuase these greedy extortionists now want money every month of the year ostensibly to help me pay large bills (which have gone down this year some.) Heating oil companies and now INVESTMENT companies. They are involved in the tricky finances designed to maximize their profits at our expense. Getting us all to sign up was very easy last year compared to this year. They are, in my opinion, outside of the capitalist market inside the new greed market that charges whatever the market will bear and then whatever else they can get away with. A bean counter somewhere made a hefty bonus dreaming up this whopper.

I may have actually saved money in the long run by paying the higher, non-guaranteed price of oil in the Winter and refilling myself on the non-guaranteed price in the Summer!. That brings up another question, why does Maryland allow a two-tiered oil price system where those that don’t have credit or do not want agreements have to pay a higher price for oil than those that do. It sure seems like discrimination to me. (Seniors, the poor, the business savvy.) Since I moved here I have always thought that energey was just another racket in Maryland, with our government looking the other way as long as the taxes were paid.

5. Their terms change at whim. regardless of the agreement I paid each bill as a I got it thinking the agreement ran October to February as my heating season always did. No it ran twinkles months. The greedy trolls didn’t want me to pay for the oil since they were no longer an oil company. They’re a bank, an investment form, another sales and marketing oligarchy just like all the rest.

I hate sneaky businesses that make offers with their fingers crossed behind their backs and I hate lousy customer service. I went to this company because they actually picked up the telephone when I had a questions. The previous company in this area, also a large one, never returned calls, and if they kept appointments they were never kept on the first try or they were late. The reason of course is that they are no longer an oil company delivering a service at a fair market price, they are a bank, an investment firm, a financial house looking at dollars and their bonus checks.

The Feds and State of Maryland probably appreciates this maneuver because they can expect higher fuel taxes the way the oil company, excuse me the oil bank, has the deliveries timed to the government’s and their advantage.

All these little changes in many industries have been occurring before our very eyes. Every month each one adds more and more stress to the consumer. The bank managers and oil bank managers don’t worry about it because their bonuses keep them up with the times.

As a senior citizen in Calvert County and a resident of Maryland I am sick of being treated this way. If government and industry has its way we will all be much worse off as the years go on. Old age may be the worst time of our lives thanks to American business and American government.

We have reached that point for American business. One customer doesn’t matter unless the bill isn’t being paid. When they lose one or two it is of no concern because there are no enough people to take the place of everyone the business loses. Now all American business cares about is squeezing every last penny out of every customer however they can accomplish it.

You have to wonder about American business. They love the blogger and hate the blogger. They can love your opinions and hate your opinions. They can be friendly and unfriendly, passive and aggressive. But regardless of whether American business is right or wrong they intend to win against the blogger.

There are search companies that scan websites, even personal websites like mine, looking for “shudder” stolen content. Their bots are anonymous, that is uninvited, disobey the robots.txt protocols, and take what they want – if they can get through. Since most of these commercial secret police do not behave as a bot should behave certain data strings or the lack of same give them away and the bot are blocked. I never realized after having used a WordPress protection plugin what some of these blocked were attempting to do. What else were they wanting to use MY content for I wonder?

Then there is the new crop of real secret and private police silently making their own lists. American business is now scanning the blogosphere for blogs that their clients want tracked for political, commercial, or law enforcement purposes. Tame personal blogs like mine. When you don’t consider yourself a threat to democracy and the American way but still find an American business gathering your pages for thorough analysis and you don’t know who their customer is, it is more than a little creepy. It is stifling. (I don’t see the press even writing about it. The press is paying those other companies to scan our blogs to make sure our content isn’t actually their content.)

Then there are the those whom I believe are claiming to do one thing but perhaps actually doing another. Groups, and perhaps companies, looking for ways to hack into your private sites so that spam can be placed against your wishes.

After having worked in the software industry I am really worried about the great institution we call American business. What I saw in the business gives credence to the creation of these new Internet denizens claiming to be part of the business community. What I learned in the 90′s was that American business now uses trickery, propaganda, and lawyers to put competitors out of business. What we no longer use as the effective measure of success is product quality, value, and customer service so the market can decide.

American business now goes for the jugular and that extends to their interactions with customers. Customer service is severely lacking. Problems are not solved they are avoided or made so difficult to solve that the customer gives up. Fees are egregious but touted as necessary for a company to survive. The companies can somehow still afford to pay huge salaries even while making layoffs and reducing quality and service.

The threats to the common blogger and consumer on the Internet are no different than anywhere else in this environment. American business or capitalism as we thought we knew it doesn’t exist. (Not entirely true there are still honest companies but they are in peril.) Greedy bean counters are not interested in charging what the market will bear and provide service, quality, and value all the while while maintaining their honesty and integrity. No the new new marketing, sales, and bean counting elite have decided capitalism means they must take huge salaries and charge what the market will bear and then whatever else they can get away with. They remain in command of their market share only if they put competition and critics out of business by whatever means available to the company – all honesty, integrity, value, and service aside. The success of a company is no longer determined by service, quality, value, honesty, and integrity. The better product, the better concept, the better service may die. Success is determined by greed.

Bloggers need to start watching their logs more closely. Most have very little to fear unless we actually lose the First Amendment someday, but some American business may do what they can to paint you into a corner. I worry that blogging by individuals may be the new target of certain business and political elite.

You may be aware that PNC Bank (the institution that took over Calvert Bank) was a recipient of taxpayer bail out funds. What you may not know about using your ATM card is that the bank is EAGERLY awaiting the day you use it with insufficient funds. When you do PNC bank WILL, without conscience, charge you $36 per transaction regardless of the amount of the transaction. They won’t refuse to accept your ATM card at the point of sale, NO they want that fee. They will pay the “over draft” they COULD HAVE prevented at the point of sale and charge YOU big bucks for your dastardly deed! You are a lowly, scumbag, fee-worthy over draft customer.

It used to be that banks checked your balance before allowing a sale to go through at the point of sale. Now PNC bank HOPES and PRAYS that you will make those mistakes that every normal person does so they can charge you an obscene penalty. They bank on it.

You are NOT SAFE when you use an ATM card to pay for items at retail. Unless you sign up for outrageous account protection withdrawals from savings you will be charged an OBSCENE FEE for every transaction you make. It doesn’t matter that you thought you had a enough money in your account, that you are a senior citizen, or you are just human. These criminals in bankers clothing at PNC bank are there to steal your funds as charges, fees, and penalties and to pay you as tiny a percentage as they can on savings. PNC bank is doing you no favors.

Use EXTREME caution with your ATM card. Check your balance every day. My account was overdrawn by about $55.00 over a day and a half when I thought I had plenty there before pay day. The number of transactions, one at just seventy-nine cents, racked up TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in penalty charges which took half of this seniors limited income paycheck from his checking account.

PNC bank didn’t give a damn. They are extraordinarily happy you had a momentary lapse of judgment in their favor.

My solution is to look into credit union membership and ask questions up front. PNC bank is a predator with usurious fees. They are not your friend and definitely NOT worth doing business with. You never know when they are going to take advantage of their relationship with you. They have all the cards and your money! There is nothing rational or fair about these fees. The fees only serve to increase the bank’s income at customer expense.

Using an ATM card does not protect you from outrageous insufficient fund charges from predatory banks and definitely NOT from PNC bank

My suggestion is that anytime you can identify a PNC bank employee at your place of business is that you always charge them suggested list, never offer customer service or discounts, and anytime you can stick to the rules in your company’s favor do it. They will do the same to you someday without conscience. You might even consider refusing PNC membership in local organizations. Their charities are a fraud since the money they are giving away probably belonged to other victims.

Oh and all you Calvert County taxpayers. I think we have been had. PNC’s bail out didn’t help us much. It’s cost me plenty. I strongly urge every PNC bank customer that has been victimized by the PNC fee system to complain to Congress. Outrageous over draft fees are a topic of interest to law makers at the moment. Fees are OUT OF PROPORTION with the cause. The rules of the bank are designed to collect a large fee no matter what.

Another brazenly aggressive telemarketer using an off-shore call center is harassing our family now. The caller ID either says “not available” or “International.” The connection is terrible. The telemarketer wants information for a yellow pages listing. Despite asking the person at the other end to cease and desist they keep calling. Anyone know who the caller from 860-739-4331 is? These people are truly annoying.

So there I sat trying to send an email with a small attachment to two friends, both on the Comcast network. The email service I was using was a web mail application at Network Solutions. When I sent the email I received a bounced copy of the message with an error 554 BL000000 that said my IP address was a SPAMMER! I looked like and acted like a SPAMMER! I got the same message last week trying to send to Comcast.net from a local email client application on another domain. Very frustrating.

Well I called Comcast and spoke to folks there. (They have always been exceedingly polite, respectful, and helpful.) The rep told me that my mail was rejected because of a PTR lookup failure (reverse DNS.) They suggested I call Network Solutions. I called Network Solutions and they claim they are not being throttled en-masse by Comcast.net. The rep at Network Solutions did say that my home Comcast IP address was listed at Symantechs http://investigate.brightmail.com as a BAD SPAMMER IP address! Oh swell.

We run NO Symnatech products on our PC’s at home yet this third party company is creating a reputation file on our IP. We have never been compromised, we don’t spam, we just use the Internet like everyone else. We have virus programs on our computers. The ONLY issue we had once was a dopey FaceBook worm. McAfee’s product furnished by Comcast killed that.

Network Solutions can’t restore my email service. Comcast will not issue a new IP. Comcast claims I simply need to issue a release and renew but that has not worked in years. We no longer have a dynamic IP address and they have no way of changing the IP.

I DID discover something I was NOT aware of, something Comcast has still not told me COULD be the problem. Why it would prevent me from using a webmail client at Network Solutions is unknown. According to this link at Spamhaus ALL comcast customers are REQUIRED to use their Comcast OUTGOING email server and MAY NOT use another provider’s server. I have ALWAYS been able to use the outgoing servers at my other domains at Network Solutions. This really yanks my chain. I can’t use services that I PAY FOR and I AM NOT A SPAMMER!

Now my family is apparently at the mercy of company whose services we do not use and neither Comcast or Network Solutions will resolve this mess for us. They just point at each other or at Symantech. Internet security has run amok.

This after I discovered that my web host also throttles large FTP uploads for security reasons after I tried to upload more than six files into my web directory. Customers are being protected to death and customer service has tanked. Customer Service agents everywhere are having trouble with two plus two equals four. They just have no idea how to help or alleviate the conditions they themselves create with their own security inventions. Customers are losing freedoms and services we used to take for granted because of the spies, cretins, bottom dwellers and spammers compromising accounts. I am so frustrated. The situation is out of control and just is not right.

I commented on an article at WUSA9.com regarding a judge in Charles County that believes he has the right to take the law into his own hands when someone parks in his parking spot. (See video at NBC News 13)

This is outrageous illegal behavior by a judge. Where I come from this is VANDALISM. He deserves to LOSE HIS JOB over this. Any judge that believes he has the right to descend to this kind of ridiculous bizarre self-serving behavior DOES NOT deserve to judge others. This is just sickening.

Charles County citizens should be looking for a new judge. Now.

It just sickens me whenI see illetist behaqvior to this degree from appointed or elected officials. This kind of behavior from a judge is obscene and deserves immediate action to remove him from office. These people are held to a higher standard or at least they should be. Charles County stand up up and be heard.

I am aware of these issues but I have no control over them:

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Internal Server Error

We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but there has been an internal server error. Please click on the back button to return to the former page.

This was happening about the same time Facebook anad Twitter were suffering denial of service attacks. Coincidence?  Who knows.

EyeOnAnnapolis.net 071609: “Comptroller Peter Franchot released Maryland’s June revenue figures in an open letter to Governor Martin O’Malley, Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller.”

The Democrats in Annapolis are just now getting it. Click the link above to read the entire story at EyeOnAnnapolis.net. This isn’t about slots, this is about financial malfeasance and incompetence in Annapolis by our elected law makers there.  They had several opportunities to stop this madness they now tout as a crisis. Where are you Democrat property owners and business people? We have to move the statists and progressives out of Annapolis in 2010. We just have to if we are to survive as a state.

WUSA9.COM: ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — “A Montgomery County judge has thrown out speeding tickets issued to four county police officers.” Click the WUSA9.COM url to read the entire article.

A summary of the story is that a circuit court judge threw out the speed-camera tickets of four police officers because their “right to due process was violated.” Apparently the police department requires a written policy for speed camera violations for on duty police.

I found this excuse wanting for common sense and on its face – ridiculous. Using the judge’s logic this must mean that if my family has no written policy on speed camera tickets I can escape prosecution for the same lame reason. The camera caught a police vehicle speeding with no emergency lights activated. I would bet there is a policy that when an emergency vehicle is operated at high speed those emergency lights must be on. You think? It might even be a state law as is the case in other states.

Public safety culture does seem different on the East coast than elsewhere. In California at the agency I used to work for, we were trained to operate police vehicles with emergency lights activated when traffic laws were broken while responding to a call for service. There were plenty of on-duty safety regulations regarding the safe operation of police vehicles to deal with situations like these. We all knew that if we operated a police vehicle in an unsafe fashion and there was an accident we as officers would be held responsible.

What I have seen in Maryland often escapes the bounds of common sense. In a few cases I have even called and spoken to Calvert County Sheriff Evans about the behaviors I have seen. Sheriff Evans was very concerned about what I had to say. I told him my impressions of Maryland public safety was that either training is not what it should be or the employee culture is different here and members consider themselves a privileged class that is above obeying the traffic law. I said that it frustrated me when I saw sheriffs and police chiefs gathering on television commercials to talk about traffic safety and seatbelts when day after day I see emergency vehicles and private cars with public safety vanity plates operated outside of the law and all common sense.

It abhors me to make these distinctions because I worked for a police department in California. As a rule I think most officers do not like to call the bad behavior of others to the public’s attention. But this just cannot continue without people getting hurt. Where I worked officers  had training in the proper operation of police vehicles.

I know what officers are up against on a day-to-day basis. That has not escaped me.  In this state, however agencies push their luck allowing bad behavior to continue. The officers in this story were caught and should have received a citation and a conviction. The ticket should have reflected as a mark on their personnel record as well.

This lack of care for public safety extends to drivers of private vehicles tagged with public safety vanity plates.  Some years back I watched with amazement as an FP plated vehicle traveling over the limit was waved through a speed trap as cars traveling at the same speed were stopped and cited. I stopped to ask the officer why and was asked to keep moving. I regularly see holders of the vanity plates violating Maryland traffic laws. Why do they do it? In my time, law enforcement officers held themselves to a higher personal standard. What I see in Maryland are officers and their families using the badge as a means to an end and that end is to avoid a citation. This acquittal in Rockville, Maryland only served to support the out-of-control subculture.

I also know that not all officers behave this way. Thanks to Sheriff Evans and thanks to the excellent training many of our Calvert County Deputies have received I see FEWER (but I do see some) officers violating traffic laws. My sense is that Sheriff Evans has instilled in his department a personal standard and a department standard that the rights and privileges of a police officer to take emergency action are better protected and safer when policy is followed.

Judges need to hold police to a higher standard. The police unions need to hold officers to a higher standard. The public MUST hold their officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical providers to a higher standard and contact agencies when emergency vehicles and holders of public safety vanity plates violate traffic laws. Agencies need to take the complaints SERIOUSLY. The rights and privileges associated with emergency response are fragile. The dangers in driving a public safety vehicle are many and the consequences of bad behavior can be devastating. Public safety professionals are expected to behave like professionals and to fraternally hold each other responsible for law-abiding driving behaviors.

The officers in this WUSA9.COM story should ask the court to hold them personally accountable for their actions and to accept the speeding tickets and the consequences regardless of the judge’s opinion.

Glenn Beck, “Common Sense,” published 2009:

” Assemble with passion, peace, and power, and march on Washington. Let your voice be heard and your anger be seen. Some will label your words as inciting or dangerous; help them understand that the truth will always sound angry to those who can’t [ed. or will not] recognize it.”

If you haven’t read Glenn Beck’s new book “Common Sense” yet I strongly recommend it. Are you confused about the 9-12′ers that meet at Tea Parties across the nation? Are you wondering why some famous people call the 9-12′ers horrible names or why our own government seems to think we should be watched? Why are politicians making decisions about us that defy a common sense explanation? What has happened to our school system? Why do the American people seem so divided?

The answers are all in Glenn’s book. It’s a book, and you need not fear the book itself. Pick it up and read it, however, and the words will remind you how you can again feel about about life, liberty, truth, and your own pursuit of happiness in our United States. The words will inspire you to think and to take actions that can again bring America to its senses.

I get letters. Baltimore Gas and Electric sends me letters when it gets a little hot in the utility’s kitchen. The trouble with these letters is that the kitchen just gets hotter and the rate payer angrier with the company. Each is nothing more than a stale attempt to mitigate bad public opinion.

The First Letter

Last month I received a letter explaining that my monthly $10 bill reduction was being reduced to $7 a month. I didn’t understand the money decision behind it exactly given our BGE bills have gone through the roof in the last year this DESPITE the many changes many rate payers have made in their homes to reduce electrical usage. I am convinced my rates would be double what they are had I not made those changes. BGE knew rate payers were reducing electrical usage and that that would produce lower BGE income so BGE raised rates calling it the true cost of energy.

What we learned recently from the Baltimore Sun is that the true cost of energy also includes exorbitant executive salaries. I hate to agree with Governor Omalley’s people, but this paragraph from the Sun article struck home:

“We are not prepared to see sums of this magnitude leave the company for a single individual at ratepayer expense,” Michael R. Enright, O’Malley’s chief of staff, wrote in a letter dated last week to a Constellation executive. Enright indicated that concerns about compensation would have to be addressed for the settlement negotiations to be successful.

BGE said in Letter One that it would entertain the possibility of keeping the $10 discount (on an often greater than $200 bill) if I agreed to pay THEM an additional $40 to have an energy audit consultant visit my home to discuss how I can reduce my energy usage. Swell.

The $10 discount allows BGE to install a remote-controlled on-off switch on my air conditioner allowing them to turn the air conditioner off during peak energy periods. We are so conservative with our use of power that I don’t think this switch has ever been used at my home. On our previous bills of just over $100 we enjoyed what amounted to nice bill reduction with no inconvenience. A win win.

But is BGE blind? I have lived in this home since 2003. Since that time I installed a new energy saving refrigerator, dishwasher, oil furnace, air conditioner, AND a programmable thermostat. Many of the exterior lights at my home are very-low wattage LED lamps or solar powered battery lamps. Where I needed brighter lamps I replaced regular light bulbs with the new fluorescent variety. We purchased a device called the Power Save 1200 to help reduce power consumed by inductive loads of which we have several: fans, well pump, etc. My spouse and I are also about to have windows replaced and siding put on. We know we have reduced our energy use but BGE has no clue.

BGE wants me to pay this consultant $40 and have that fee reduced if I agree to PAY for on-the-spot updates to my electrical usage like installing fluorescent bulbs or (you guessed it) an energy-saving programmable thermostat! That’s already been done. Keeping the $3.00 of the ten dollar discount is nothing short of extortion. It is a waste of money and time. It defies common sense. BGE has already been paid huge sums of money by rate payers and those sums ought to filter back as company paid consulting to help rate payers make decisions to reduce energy usage! Consulting fees should be free or they should ask us what we have already done to save. BGE appears to have enough cash on hand to pay a single individual MILLIONS in compensation – but for what? Did he dream up this silly program. It seems to me that part of that cash ought to be used to help rate payers meet company expectations? You think? I’m just saying….

I should not have to admit a power company employee or privately paid consultant into my home to discuss my power usage to have the $3 per month ($36 per year) reinstated. Not only is it extortion it is overly intrusive. Where is the State of Maryland on this issue?

Marylanders are tired of this kind of corporate behavior. I’m sure sick of being treated this way. BGE doesn’t even have a meter reader visit every month of the year which usually results in an under estimate of power used one month causing a HUGE bill the following month. It is no skin off their nose if we are inconvenienced. They get their money, whatever they decide to charge, no matter what. They do as they please with their customers apparently.

Letter 2

Since 2003 we have learned that BGE customers at the tail end of their service delivery area (Chesapeake Beach and South to Wilson Rd at Plum Point Rd. means long tedious, regular and uncomfortable power outages. Well, it is 2009 and the company’s new letter explains that they are just now out to trim trees away from wires in our area to continue to deliver excellent service to us. Oh swell, they had an epiphany! Winds and falling tree limbs cause power outages! Balderdash. BGE is mitigating unpopular public opinion. Some substantive changes to corporate behavior and executive salaries are in order as is a greater level of regulation by the state.

I’ll believe it when we see it. Outages are still too common and we are considering installing a propane generator to prevent days and weeks without power every time the wind blows up the Chesapeake.

Corporate behaviors like this are what ATTRACTS government intervention. The sooner BGE starts delivering power and better customer service the freer they will be from government intervention. As a BGE customer I am very dissatisfied. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I was still being served by SMECO.

I just can’t wait for the next letter. Capitalism and competition be damned. These companies have decided what they are entitled to from ratepayers and they are going to get it no matter what. It is no longer what the market can bear but the market can just barely pay.

You might also like:

Electric Bills Among Worst of Residents’ Economic Fears

The Maryland State Department of Health continues to call residents of the state asking personal questions about their health. I am one of those residents. Despite repeatedly telling this agency to mind its own business the intrusive calls keep coming in after regular business hours.

The telephone number the caller ID shows is 410-767-6774. This shows up on the Internet as:

Diabetes Control Prgm Coordinator
MD Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene
Division of Diabetes Control
Office of Chronic Disease Prevention
Community & Public Health Admin
6 St. Paul Street Suite 603
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Phone 410-767-6774
Fax 410-333-2885

When you ask the callers to stop calling they become defensive and angry and remind you they are the “State of Maryland.” This agency harassed us last year as well. That is what it is – government harassment. When you tell someone or some organization to STOP calling you every call after that is HARASSMENT.

I have read at other websites that these calls are made at random but I have my doubts.

Are you getting these calls? Have you asked the state to go away? How many times have they called after you have asked them to stop? Has your doctor or other medical provider or pharmacist given your personal information to the state? I do not need or want a government bureaucrat asking me personal and private questions about my health. What don’t these people understand about NO!

This intrusive call with its request for personal and private information from a caller we cannot verify has to stop. There is no excuse for a government agency to behave in this way.

I am so tired of watching smiling Democrats on national TV telling their audience how confused they are that people attend tea parties. They say, “We just lowered taxes. We gave them a tax break!”

You people gave us nothing and you know it.

The few lousy dollars we might get back on our pay checks are already going to twenty plus percent increases in LOCAL AND STATE property taxes. Sales taxes in my state were conveniently raised by a new Democrat governor a year ago January. The last time property taxes went up they went up the maximum amount possible. Taxes are going up EVERYWHERE. One can only assume that the Democrat talking heads know they are not telling us the truth during their interviews! These tea parties are a statement of our frustration with NATIONAL, STATE, COUNTY, and LOCAL governments (including SCHOOLS) OUT OF CONTROL. You fools are spending us into oblivion!

I hear Juan Williams on Fox spinning as “most Americans feel they are paying the right amount of taxes.” What are you smoking Juan? I’m fifty-five years old wondering how I am going to survive by the time I’m sixty. Quite a few baby boomers are in the same boat. Our retirements are valueless and our taxes HAVE BEEN and ARE on the increase.

The Federal tax spin by Democrats is an obfuscation.

How is this country going to PAY for this outrageous spending? It is going to come out of our taxes, everybody’s taxes at some point. You don’t fool us anymore. You have driven up the cost of doing business so that business will pass on their increased taxes to US. You know that is the truth. Yet you politicians on the left sit on camera and smile and nod.

The tea parties were and are still a strong public statement that Democrats fear. When they fear a movement or an idea that might have an effect on their power they obfuscate and spin.

Your smiles are shallow and words are spin. I don’t believe you or the Democrats running the state of Maryland have done anyone any good except spin the poor and middle class back into a tax hell.

Take a minute to visit an outstanding Internet news source for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. EyeOnAnnapolis.net is worth a look. I’m adding them to my Morning Coffee FireFox button. This is a blog to check every day.