Howard Dean vs. Fox "News"

I watched an excerpt of a Howard Dean interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity today (Hannity was actually on the floor of the Democratic Convention, I couldn't believe it) where Hannity was asking Dean about the "left's" (Hannity's word, not mine) forgiveness of John Kerry and John Edwards for their laying out the belief that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, while they refuse to leave President Bush alone with that. Dean obviously mentioned that there were plenty of other lies that the president told us, but I think that Dean missed out on one simple fact.

Where exactly did Kerry and Edwards get their information on the WMDs in Iraq? Well, most likely they came from the president and his administration. At the time, there was no reason to believe that Bush was lying through his teeth about the presence of WMDs there. Now, I disagree that we should have ever gone to Iraq, but the fact remains that Congress needs to be able to trust the president with intelligence, as intelligence agencies like the CIA, NSC, and FBI are under his jurisdiction as the leader of the executive branch of our government.

So, if Congress can't trust our nation's leader to get them good information, that leader needs to be at least voted out of office. He SHOULD be impeached. He's certainly done a lot more harm than President Clinton ever did with Monica Lewinsky.

Songs From My Noggin

"Bea-u-tiful People of Denver" - from the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Don't ask.

October Surprise, Part 2

Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks that Bush may have a late-breaking surprise for the electorate... check out this video at TooStupidToBePresident.com

Batman Fan Films

For a long time, I ignored fan films - most of the ones I saw were for Star Wars and such and I honestly don't have much interest in those. And for the most part, the quality is too poor to even warrant looking at them.

But just recently I came across a new website with fan films - Batman Fan Films. This site has top notch movies connected to it - some of which are darned close to being studio quality. I think it's worth checking out.

Especially good are the latest two entries: Grayson and World's Finest. GREAT stuff.

Songs From My Noggin

"One Vision" - Queen

Pregnancy Rumblings

Okay, last night my wife told me to do something that I almost had to post right away - but she told me to turn off the computer and go to bed. 

I've been trying to be a good husband and put down the toilet seat after doing you-know-what.   Well... last night she asked me to leave it up.  She MEANT to say to leave the seat down and the lid up (it's hard for her to bend over to lift it, I guess).  But you have to admit that's pretty funny. 

Just in Time for the Democratic Convention...

I absolutely LOVE how the Bush Administration is suddenly hinting at the possibility of an Iran (not Iraq, notice) connection to the 9/11 attacks, and just before the Democratic Convention is about to start up. 
 
Could it be that our dear president is worried about the Democrats bringing out how much his administration has screwed things up both domestically and overseas, and he wants to distract attention from that by creating a new enemy for us all to fear? 
 
This is like the October Surprise, only earlier.  I'm predicting now that the Shrub and company will be coming out with some big announcement about Iran's involvement in 9/11 this weekend or next week, during the Democratic Convention.  Keep in mind that the CIA has already said that it has no evidence of Iranian involvement...
 
As far as the actual October Surprise goes, btw, I think we're going to see a certain Al Qaeda leader suddenly show up just before the election. 

No Smoking Allowed in Columbus!

And it's about time, too. Major kudos to the Columbus City Council for enacting a ban on cigarette smoking in public places.

I like a good bar - but the number one thing I hate about them is coming out smelling like an ashtray. You just KNOW the damage that's being done to your health in such places, yet smokers just puff away like they own the place.

Now, I'm not going to tell anyone that they can't smoke. In fact, if you're a smoker, then I congratulate you on being brave enough to withstand the hordes of evidence that you're harming yourself by taking on such a nasty habit. But that does not give you ANY right to harm me just because you want to light up. If you want to light up, then go somewhere that your habit is not harming my health. I have the right to go into a public place and not expect to be made sick.

Major kudos to the cities around Columbus, as well - the suburbs. From all reports I'm hearing, most of them are looking to enact similar bans. This is going to make it easier for Columbus businesses to weather the storm of people stomping out because they can't smoke, and looking for other places to do it.

Now, if there's only a way to get smokers to stop littering by throwing their butts out the window at every traffic stop...

Customer Service At Its Most Descriptive

Had to pay my SBC bill today, which I receive and pay online. As I was paying it, I noticed that my old residential address was still on the bill. Well, that ain't right, so I looked around on the website for a place to change that. Didn't find anything, all I found was a spot to change my password, nickname for my account, or username.

So, being the sort of person who likes to have his ducks in a row, more or less, I emailed their customer service desk. Here's my message:

When I view my eBill, I see that it has my old residential address on it. How do I change this?

And here's the response I got.

Dear Mr. Fellrath,

Thank you for your recent email. To change your account information please follow these instructions:

1. Log in to MySBC(SM) account at https://www.sbc.com/mysbc with your User ID and Password.
2. At the MySBC service Overview page, click on the Edit Profile link located on the upper right portion of the page.
3. At the MySBC account Profile page, click on the Edit button beside the information you would like to update and follow the instructions.

You may also update this information by selecting the SBC eBill Profile tab from your online bill and then clicking on Edit MySBC(SM) Profile.

Now... this was what I already did. This was where there were no options for the address. So I responded one more time...

None of the options on that page give me access to changing my address, as it appears on my eBill. Is there another place I must go to change that?

And... here's their exact response. Pay CLOSE attention to their word usage.

Dear Mr. Fellrath,

Thank you for your recent email. Please contact an Ebill
representative, at 1-8XX-XXX-XXXX for futile assistance.

Thank yoy for choosing SBC products and services.

It's all I can do not to make my next message say:

I already got your futile assistance. Now I'd like some that's actually HELPFUL.

I do think that pretty much says it all, don't you?

"I Get a Kick Out of You!"

Okay, as my wife just pointed out to me, I have failed to note that I had a very significant event in my life take place just a couple nights ago...

I actually felt my child KICK for the first time.

Jennifer has actually been feeling this for some time, now, but this was a first for me. According to her, the kid is ready to start youth soccer now. And I'd been trying to feel it myself for a while... including telling Jenn to wake me up if it got to be strong enough that I could feel it during the night. This is apparently akin to trying to make a Greek hero after a long lingering gaze at Medusa. It ain't gonna happen.

So for me to finally feel it was pretty special. I feel sort of detached from the whole process, being the man and not having anything inside me other than the carrots and celery I'm currently munching on. But such is the role of the expectant father, so I'll continue to watch and wait, and naturally help as much as I can, until the day that I can hold the kid in my arms, watch it spit on my shirt, and then hand the tyke back to Jenn while I run out to the kitchen to clean myself up. :)

My Viking Name

From the website: http://www.thequarter.org/Media/VikingName.php

My Viking Name is:

Jón Oakenhorse
Your Viking Personality: You're a fearsome Viking, but you aren't completely uncivilized. The other Vikings make fun of you for that. You have a thirst for battle, and tend to strike first and think later. You might be able to hold your own on the battlefield, but you're no "berserker".

You might grumble a bit at the lack of amenities on board a Viking longboat, but you can handle it. Other Vikings consider you "one of the guys".

You have a fairly pragmatic attitude towards life, and tend not to expend effort in areas where it would be wasted. You sometimes come off as a bit of a snob. Vikings are not snobbish people -- they either like you, or they kill you. Try to be more like a Viking.

Songs From My Noggin

"Chelsea 3 AM" - The Prodigals