More Information to Back Up My Last Post

Virginia Tech gunman sent material to NBC

WRITINGS RAISED CONCERNS!?!?!

Va. Tech Gunman Writings Raised Concerns - EarthLink - Top News

WHAT?! This has me so enraged that I can barely type. This was such an absolute failure on the part of the administation of Virginia Tech and the Virginia State Police to protect students and staff that heads should have been rolling in both places yesterday. There should be resignations and firings happening right now. Two hours - TWO HOURS - 120 MINUTES passed between the first 2 killings and the other 30. Why were students still allowed to walk the campus? Why was there not a LOCKDOWN?!? What in the name of God were the authorities and administration doing? This man had previously set fire to a dorm. HELLO?!?! Set fire to a dorm. Why was he not permanently expelled? The administration of this school owes some explanations to parents, spouses, children, brothers and sisters NOW! Not next week, not tomorrow, RIGHT NOW! This is insanity, and I am not only speaking of the shooter. I am contacting my daughter's college to find out what they are doing to ensure that this WILL NOT happen on her campus.

Site Attempts to Boycott "The View"

Stoprosie.com is attempting to make a dent in number of "The View" fans. They view her comments about 9/11 and President Bush as unpatriotic and anti-American. What the site will not tell you is anything about the evidence behind Rosie's words or about the lies told by President Bush and made evident by members of his own administration. Ms. O'Donnell obviously frightens the folks at the site because millions of women are hearing the truth from Rosie, some for the first time. I am not a fan of O'Donnell, but I do admire her courage in speaking out against the Bush administration and the ridiculous war in which the President has involved our men and women.

Ex-Aide Details a Loss of Faith in the President

Who's the Flip-flopper Now, Mr. Dowd?

This piece about an interview by Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times with Matthew Dowd shows Dowd as man who switched parties to support Bush through 2 campaigns and a senseless war and then to become a critic who is now calling for withdrawal from Iraq (his son is to be deployed there). As usual, the Republican party draws the hypocrites. Had Dowd done this interview before the 2004 elections, I might have believed his supposed change of heart. However, now that we are half way through a second term with this lying, office stealing, thug of a president, and Mr. Dowd sees Mr. Bush's numbers falling through the floor, I have no faith in his change of heart. I hope that Mr. Dowd finds himself unemployed for the next decade. That might give him a taste of what Bush has put this country through.

After Trying to Burn Clinton, Republicans Want Their Privacy

It appears the the Party of Hypocrites is out in full force. Republican candidates like Newt Gingrich, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani are calling for privacy during the presidential campaign. How do they keep from biting their forked tongues? These Republicans who constantly make personal character a central issue in their attacks on others want us to simply look the other way when it comes to their own personal lives! Do they really think we can take them seriously when they spew this garbage? I won't. I hope you won't either.

Please Fix IE7 To Work With Flash!

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How many of you are having this problem? You visit a site that uses Adobe Flash content and receive a message stating that you must upgrade to the latest version of Flash Player. You are sure that you have the latest version of the player, but to be certain you go to the Adobe site and download it anyway. In seconds, you see the Adobe sample playing and think, "ok, cool, everything is working." However, when you return to the site that originally told you to upgrade, you still receive the same message. Next, you Google the problem, follow the suggestions to uninstall Flash Player, and then reinstall Flash Player. You return to the site that gave the "upgrade" message once again, but still, you receive the same *@&# message telling you to upgrade. From my experience, this is an IE7 problem. I can go to the same sites using Firefox and view the content without any problems. I wonder if Mac users have these issues.

Freeze Your File and Their Profits

I was just visiting Experian's website (the credit reporting agency) to see what I can learn about how to freeze my file with them so that potential creditors and others (including identity thieves) could not access it. While searching the site, I came across an article by the Maxine Sweet, the company's Vice President of Public Education. That must be another name for Spin Doctor. Public Education? Riiiiiight. Profit protection is more accurate. Ms. Sweet was responding to a question asked by the fiancee' of a man who had been the victim of identity theft and apparently requested that his credit reports "frozen." The problem is that the future husband was careless and forgot the PIN given to him by Experian (and quite possibly the other 2 reporting agencies, Trans Union & Equifax). Ms. Sweet, being the great "educator" said that freezing his file after an identity theft actually would give the thief more power to do harm by committing different types of fraud. How ridiculous!

The fact is that every time someone freezes their credit file, it is lost revenue for the credit reporting agencies because they can no longer sell your information to just anyone who has your personal information. If your file is frozen, you must personally "unfreeze" it temporarily for the person or company who wishes to view the information. If you properly handle your PIN, this is a minor hassle for you and the person/company needing the information, but a MAJOR hassle for the credit reporting agency. They must spend man-hours and money, locking and unlocking and re-locking your credit file. This again takes money from their bottom line. I should let you know that your state may allow a nominal fee to the credit reporting agencies for temporarily unlocking your file.

It all makes me laugh. Why? I truly cannot stand credit reporting agencies. They gather very sensitive, personal information - information that should be extremely privileged, and they sell it. Does the party requesting your credit information have to know you? No. Does the party requesting your information need your permission? Supposedly, yes, but it is very easy for them to skirt this requirement. Do you get any part of the profit from YOUR information that has often been collected without YOUR permission (because you have no choice if you want to buy a house, car, furniture, etc.)? No. AND, if something is incorrect on your credit report, getting it corrected is extremely difficult. In my opinion, credit reporting agencies do the same thing that a paparazzi photographer does. They take something private from you without your permission and sell it. It is a scummy business. It stinks to high heaven. But now, we - or, at least, some of us - have been given a new tool to battle these companies.

Some state governments actually did something right for a change and gave some control back to the real owners of personal credit files - the people whose names are on those files. In some states, you can now freeze your credit file from an unknown entity attempting to gain access to it. It currently costs $10/person per agency to freeze your credit file (a total of $30 per person) and requires that you send a certified letter requesting the freeze to each of the 3 agencies. The credit reporting agencies are required to maintain a toll-free number for people who have frozen their files. If you want find out which states have made this law, how to get your state to enact such a law, and where to write to freeze your own credit file, simply follow this url:

http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/financialprivacynow/learn.html

My wife and I are going to freeze our files in order to take away some of the credit reporting agencies' power and to protect our credit, which Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax are NOT doing. I hope you will consider freezing your credit file also.

What Is Wrong With Embarq?

*UPDATE* Joy of Joys! Today, the Embarq technician who has done the best work for us in the past came and checked everything from the jack to the Central Office. He changed our jack, cleared some questionable connections in the house, made sure that connections on the splitter at the outside box were secure, switched our modem (which I now believe was the real problem), and switched us to a new card in the C.O. Everything is working beautifully now. Customer service is still alive at Embarq!!!

Before getting to the nitty gritty, for those of you who may not know, Embarq is the name that Sprint has given to its spin-off local phone service. First they were United Telephone, then Sprint and now Embarq. Because I was never far from home for any long period of time, they have always been my local phone company. At one point, they were even my employer. For the large majority of my life, my family and I have been very pleased with the service they have provided. However, it seems that within the past 6 months or so, something has changed. The customer oriented, quality focused company that I used to know seems to have become distracted from the values of customer service and quality.

As a "captive customer," I really have no choice about my local service if I want "landline" service. However, I have also "chosen" Embarq over satellite and cable providers for high-speed Internet service. This is where we have seen the biggest decline in service. The technicians have been very slow to admit problems when they exist. I am not certain if this is because there is a large backlog of work to be completed or if there is another systemic problem. Whatever the reason, we have become increasingly dissatisfied with our DSL service. Since a snowstorm that occurred around February 14th, our DSL service has been regularly dropping for short periods. When it returns, the speed is fine, but sometimes it will only be available for a matter of minutes before it drops again. We had been told that the problem was inside our house. No problem - we have "wireline coverage," so we had them activate a different jack for the DSL. The tech assured us before leaving the house that the jack and inside wiring were not the cause of any problems. Unfortunately, switching jacks did not solve the problem. It has been 2 weeks of this "on/off" service with no resolution. 

I strongly suspect that there is a much larger problem than the DSL service coming to our house from the "central office." When the problem first began, we were told by Embarq that there was an "area wide" issue originating from Carlisle (Embarq's main "hub" in our region). This "issue" which was never clarified went on for several days before being "cleared" according to the representatives I spoke with on the phone. However, even after "clearing" the trouble, our problems still remain. The biggest clue that the trouble in Carlisle has not been cleared is that my friends who have Embarq DSL are also experiencing problems with their service since the storm. Now, I am left with few choices, but I am pursuing all of them.

1. Filing formal grievances with the FCC and Pennsylvania Utilities Commission.
2. Encouraging my friends to do the same.
3. A class action against Embarq.
4. Deciding on either satellite or cable to replace my DSL service. I am trying to convince my friends to make this move with me. If we all move at the same time to the same company, I think we can make a much louder statement than if we leave one by one.

If any of you who read this are having difficulties with your Embarq DSL service, please feel free to contact me using the following email address. Simply replace the "at" with @. I will be happy to hear from you.

lon_diffenderfer "at" msn.com

Together we can affect some positive change.     

Alex Jones Turns BBC Reporter's Words Into Feces

http://prisonplanet.tv/audio/190207smith.mp3

Please PLEASE listen to this interview of Guy Smith of the BBC who produced and directed a hit piece on those who believe (and have provided evidence) that the destruction of the World Trade Towers and "Building 7" in New York on September 11, 2001 was an inside job. Alex does a remarkable job of making Mr. Smith look like a disingenuous fool. If you are someone who cares at all about the future of freedom in the world's democratic nations, I implore you to check out this interview and other media available on prisonplanet.com.

A Mistrial to Save the War

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020807A.shtml

Please follow the link above to read a superbly written article by Bill Simpich, "The Watada Mistrial: Here's What Really Happened." As you read it, you will learn how a military judge improperly used "mistrial" as a way to avoid having the war, the intelligence community, and the President of the United States prosecuted in his courtroom. The actions of this judge are a grand example of cowardice. He saw the weakness of the government's case against Lt. Watada, and it scared the living s*it out of him - so he ducked and ran.