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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Not talking politics this time... curious if Comcast as bad for you as me?

We just had yet another bad experience with Comcast and their pitiful customer service. Box went out on our TV -- option was to drive 40 minutes to exchange the box or wait until they mailed replacement. Opted to drive as we had company coming to watch a ball game with us... Finally found the place, there were close to 50 (yes FIFTY) people in line, one guy working. The guy in front of us had already been there for 30 minutes...

Another rep came in, we asked how long, she said "who knows". Huh.

Called Comcast back, 20 minutes to get someone to answer. Lady said they've consolidated their service centers, long lines at all of them. I said I thought it was time to check out Dish or some other option. No response. We could have the box mailed to us... ummm, what if it turns out it's not the box, maybe it's a cable? Well, we could then do a service call, and go another three or four days without cable.

I said, no, lets just go ahead & put in a service call. We have to wait from Saturday until Tuesday to get someone out here, but at least we'll have them until it's fixed. I guess. I suppose.

Having to cancel friends coming over to watch the ballgame, guess we'll go to someone else's house...

We've had ongoing problems, seems like it's one thing after another. Still have a cable across the back of the yard waiting for them to bury it after the last visit.

I've been out wandering the Internet comparing Comcast to Dish, not looked at Satellite yet. Wondering if any of you have suggestions? I'd be fine without a TV except I like my Fox News!

I see that Dish gets high marks for tech support and service... Comcast gets trashed mightily. I had a problem a while back, wrote a blog and they jumped right on it. Not writing this for that reason, think we're probably on their do not try list at this point... shoot, they ripped us off by not giving us our HBO which was supposed to be included when they "fixed" the last problem, not sure I care to have that kind of fix again...

Anyway, would love to have your input. Watching the upcoming political events, getting my news is tops for me.

Anyone happy with Dish? Satellite? Not sure I know the difference at this point, but I will real, real soon!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

It's not just the Presidential election...

There's a lot of focus, and rightfully so, on the battle for the White House. We need to FILL that empty chair with someone of substance, who can begin to fix the problems rather than play the blame game!

We need to do more though than elect a new President --- we need to give him a support team so he doesn't spend his first two years having to battle Congress. If we can give him the Senate in November we'll be giving him the ability to DO something rather than wade through political gamesmanship, one-up-manship.

I just saw an ad on Drudge that sparked this thought process... clicked, went to a page where they're asking for donations. 100% off the donations go to the eight candidate on the page. You choose your candidate or candidates, pop in the amount and they get it. Every one of them is needed. None are in my state but that doesn't mean I can't support them, donate.

Here's the link: https://2012.senateconservatives.com/?c=5e8c0af64840016bc2dda3c6598cc247 (that one has code that gives Drudge a click through. If you don't want to use that one here's the "vanilla" link with no credit to Drudge: https://2012.senateconservatives.com/step0).

If you can't donate dollars, maybe you can make a few phone calls or send some emails, blog about the candidates, tweet, or think of some other way to support them.

Putting a conservative with the ability to actually do something to put us back on course is extremely important. Giving him a Congress that will enact the policies he proposes is just as important, if not more so.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Foundation shares free-market links to Supreme Court hearing on federal health law

Next week is huge for the 26-state coalition challenging the constitutionality of the Obama administration's Patient Protection and Affordability Act, and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens will be among the handful of people in Washington on Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court hearing.

On Thursday, Olens updated attendees at a Georgia Public Policy Foundation Leadership Breakfast on the litigation. To view his videotaped speech on the Foundation's YouTube channel, click here. To watch Foundation Senior Fellow Ronald E. Bachman discuss state-focused solutions during the same event, click here. And click here to read Bachman's commentary on Georgia reforms released today: "It's Not Too Late for Georgia Health Reform." And to read more health care solutions published by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, click here.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not break its longstanding policy against live broadcasts of its proceedings. So you can join the pundits, politicians, policy-makers and other citizens on Monday through Wednesday following the traditional media coverage. Or you can follow the Foundation's recommended links to keep you up to speed from a free-market, limited-government, state-based perspective:
  • For a schedule of the three days of oral arguments in the case (provided by the Washington Examiner) click here.
  • For ongoing coverage each day, go to PPACAction.com, a new microsite from our sister think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. It will provide a daily preview of that day’s argument plus a synopsis of major news coverage; a recap of the day’s argument plus a special daily edition of “Texas PolicyCast,” with audio excerpts from the courtroom and expert analysis; real-time analysis; links to research, and TPPF's three amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in this case.
  • The Heritage Foundation has outlined the impacts on Americans if the federal health care law is implemented. Click here to learn more.
  • The Cato Institute has a wealth of coverage, from analyses to testimony to briefs, here: www.cato.org/universal-health-care.

About the Georgia Public Policy Foundation: Established in 1991, the Foundation is an independent, state-based think tank that proposes practical, market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians. The Foundation’s regular events include Leadership Breakfasts and Policy Briefing Luncheons. Weekly publications are the Friday Facts and Friday Idea commentaries. Visit our Web site at www.georgiapolicy.org. Join The Forum at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org/. Become a fan of the Foundation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gppf.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Online Piracy Legislation Gets Vote of Confidence From Sen. Harry Reid

On a recent episode of "Meet the Press," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threw his support behind advancing legislation to curb online piracy. Both chambers of Congress have drafted legislation to address online piracy from foreign websites, but both bills have faced strong public outcry that has put their chances of passage in doubt without significant changes.

The Senate is considering the Protect IP Act ( S 968), known as PIPA, while the House is considering the Stop Online Piracy Act ( HR 3261), known as SOPA. The Senate is expected to vote on PIPA on Jan. 24, and Reid has indicated there could be significant changes that would make the bill a "winner for everyone, not just for the content people."

MapLight has conducted an analysis of campaign contributions from key industry groups to members of the U.S. Senate (July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2011) and found that:
  • Entertainment interest groups that support these bills gave 7.2 times as much ($14,423,991) to members of the U.S. Senate as Internet interest groups that oppose these bills ($2,011,332).
  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has received 4.8 times as much from entertainment interest groups that support these bills ($571,500) as from Internet interest groups that oppose these bills ($118,050).
Opponents of these two bills, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, eBay, and Twitter, fear the measures as currently drafted will grant the U.S. government power to curb free speech online and, with it, snare otherwise innocuous third-party sites. The bills' supporters, such as Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, CBS, and the Recording Industry Association of America, hope to be able to use the expanded authority to shut down websites trafficking in pirated content. Drafting language that appeases both sides has been difficult and may result in Congress's choosing one side over the other.

METHODOLOGY: Includes reported contributions to congressional campaigns of senators in office during the 112th U.S. Congress, from Cable & satellite TV production & distribution, Motion Picture production & distribution, Entertainment Industry/Broadcast & Motion Pictures, Commercial TV & radio stations, Recorded Music & music production, TV production & distribution, and Online computer services interest groups selected by MapLight, July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2011. Contributions data source: OpenSecrets.org.

Stop SOPA / PIPA!

Misguided Republicans are sponsoring a bill that will hurt YOUR freedoms. I actually LIKE some of the people who are sponsoring this mess, so I'm kind of with Eric Erickson / RedState (below). Here's a link for a Google petition you can sign to help send a message to Congress. Do some research. Take a look at this mess. Drudge has a link to a New York Times story that gives a good wrap up. Anyway, here's the petition link: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/. If you don't like Google, I would bet there are a zillion different ones floating around.

Oh, Heritage has a great article on this issue also. I received it in my morning email batch (love getting Heritage info, Morning Bell - be sure to sign up if you haven't). Here's a link to their write up: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/18/morning-bell-an-internet-blackout-over-sopa-and-pipa/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell.

You know, we have to teach our representatives to READ THE STUPID BILLS and think about the long-term repercussions of their actions. Grrrr....

One good thing about this one? All sides out here in non-political-elite-land, from Democrat to Libertarian to Republican to I-don't-care-a-fig-about-politics are united!

From Eric Erickson via email distro:

Today is an unusual day at RedState.

Many websites around the nation and the world are going dark today in solidarity against SOPA, the Stopping Online Piracy Act (SOPA) pending in Congress. Many of this site’s good friends, like Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Marco Rubio of Florida (a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, which is the Senate version of SOPA) are supporters of this horrible legislation that would give Eric Holder and future attorneys general the right to shut down websites with minimal, if any, due process.

While it pains us to do so, we are committed to working against the re-election of each Republican co-sponsor of SOPA and Protect IP, including Rep. Blackburn and Sen. Rubio. Both pieces of legislation overreach their goals and will harm the internet.

We hope the Republican co-sponsors of these pieces of legislation will remove their names and we hope the legislation will die. In solidarity with those sites shutting down today to show you the potential impact of this legislation, RedState will suspend posting new content for much of today.

On the front page of RedState you’ll find a tool you can use to contact your member of Congress and urge they oppose both SOPA and Protect IP.