Friday, February 1, 2008

Iraq Juan Cole: "People keep asking in puzzlement what Bush expected to get out of his Iraq misadventure. It is the oil, habibi, the oil." "2008 pres" 5:50:19 PM

War on terror NewMexiKen: "After the fact I realized today that the TSA agent let me through with the wrong boarding pass. I went through airport security in Albuquerque with a boarding pass for a flight originating in Atlanta." "2008 pres" 5:44:48 PM

? for President? Colorado Confidential: "Early this morning the premier right wing blog Power Line ran an "alert" of a pending online endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by the Denver Post today at noon. And sure enough, at 12:04, the Post issued endorsements for Romney - and for Democrat Hillary Clinton. The endorsements mark the first time the Denver daily has published endorsements online, in advance of its print publication." Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in Missouri finds a tight Democratic race for president with Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 48% to 44%. One in four likely voters say they may change their mind. On the GOP side, Sen. John McCain leads with 34%, followed by Mitt Romney at 30% and Mike Huckabee at 28%." Political Wire: "A new IVR poll in Texas finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race, 48% to 38%. In the Republican race, Mitt Romney edges Sen. John McCain, 30% to 29%, with Mike Huckabee getting 20% support." Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in Alabama shows the Democratic presidential race tied with Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton both getting 47% support. In the Republican contest, Sen. John McCain gets 40% support, followed by Mike Huckabee at 31% and Mitt Romney at 21%." Political Wire: "The latest Gallup daily tracking poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton edging Sen. Barack Obama, 44% to 41%, "as close as they have been since the polling program started at the beginning of 2008." The three point gap is within the poll's three-point margin of error." Political Wire: "A new poll in Alabama by the Capital Survey Research Center finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton, 40% to 35%. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads Mike Huckabee, 28% to 24%, with Mitt Romney back at 15%." Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in New York finds Sen. Barack Obama gaining ground in Sen. Hillary Clinton's home state, but Clinton still leads 54% to 38%. Clinton is down 2, Obama is up 8 in the last month...On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain holds a wide lead over Mitt Romney, 55% to 21%." Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in New Jersey finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 51% to 39%...Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain leads Mitt Romney, 48% to 25%." Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in Connecticut finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton, 48% to 44%, within the survey's 3.8 point margin of sampling error making the race effectively tied...In the Republican race, Sen. John McCain leads Mitt Romney 53% to 31%." Political Wire: "A new American Research Group poll in Illinois finds Sen. Barack Obama leading in his home state over Sen. Hillary Clinton, 51% to 40%, with 8% undecided. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads Mitt Romney, 48% to 34%, with 9% undecided." Political Wire: "A new American Research Group poll in Connecticut finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 48% to 35%, with 10% undecided. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads Mitt Romney, 43% to 25%, with 12% for Mike Huckabee and with 16% undecided." Political Wire: "According to a new Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll, Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead over Sen. Barack Obama in New Jersey has narrowed to 44% to 38%." Michael Reagan (via the Moderate Voice): "Until [Tuesday] night, when I watched the Republican debate, I had no idea how much John McCain dislikes me and just about everybody else but Rudy Giuliani, who if you believe The New York Times is a pretty good hater himself. As I watched McCain and Governor Romney go at it during the debate at the Reagan Library I was struck by the huge gap that separates McCain -- whose contempt for his fellow humans is patently obvious -- and my dad, Ronald Reagan, who had nothing but the deepest affection and respect for the American people." Here's a recap of last night's Democratic debate in California from Political Wire. Political Wire: "A new Minnesota Public Radio poll in Minnesota shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 40% to 33%. In the Republican race, Sen. John McCain leads with 41%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 22% and Mitt Romney at 17%." "2008 pres" 5:23:39 PM

Comcast service is terrible, their support is horrible, move to Qwest if you can We're sorry if you have had trouble getting to Coyote Gulch using coyotegulch.net. Update on Comcast problems. The technician today gave us the same song and dance about our DHCP lease lasting for four years. In that time we've had one of their modems fail and we've switched routers on our end. Our routers have never been configured to acquire a DHCP address. They are now telling me that getting a static IP will necessitate a new cable modem and an additional $4.95 per month. This morning required five calls. First to tech services to find out that they're still smoking something and in their world DHCP addresses can last for four years despite new equipment on their part and ours. The second call was to purchase the new static IP and get on the schedule to get a new modem. After choosing the option to add services the line went dead twice. The third call was to new business services to see if we could get a human. The woman that answered asked for information and then told us that she could not help since she only worked with new services. The fourth call was back to adding services to an existing account. The nice gentlemen again asked for information before telling us that he couldn't help because some of the business services are contracted out in certain areas. He gave us the phone number of the contractor. Her voicemail was very polite. The part we don't like is the message that it may take 24 hours to get a return call. Any bets that she really meant, "24 hours or on the next business day," especially on Super Bowl weekend? Comcast is terrible. 8 phone calls, many hours on hold and talking to reps and techs and still no clear indication of when our static IP will be assigned and working. This is a business account! This is the same phenomenon of crappy service all across the telecoms with their consolidation. Having said that we're calling Qwest today to see about DSL. Our experience with them last century was that they tried very hard but could not keep our connection up since the wiring in our neighborhood dated to the 1920s. Maybe they've solved that problem. We're wondering about the Dish network also... Mrs. Gulch told us of a woman in her seventies, Mona Shaw, smashing up a Comcast office in order to get their attention. We own the same brand of hammer, Plumb. We're only middle-aged so we're a bit hesitant to take that step. From the article: Seems as though the Comcast installer failed to show up on the appointed day of Monday, August 13. Two days later, he shows up but only does part of the job. Yet rather than finish the work, Comcast cut off all service to the Shaw's home. So now we are at Friday, August 17. Shaw and her husband Don drop in at the local Comcast office in Manassas to complain. They ask for a manager. They are told one will be right out. They wait two hours. And after two hours, a customer service rep tells the waiting Shaws the manager has gone for the day. Mona and Don stewed about it all weekend. Then Monday morning, she visits the Comcast office again. Only this time she brings Don's clawhammer. At this point, Mona proceeds to pick up the hammer and bash a customer service rep's keyboard, bashes the monitor, wrecks the telephone. People scatter and scream, cops come, and Mona Shaw is breakin' the law, breakin' the law. $345 fine, three-month suspended sentence, and a year-long restraining order keeping her away from the Comcast office. Yea, as if. Her phone service is now with Verizon. We, at least, have service. 6:45:55 AM

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