How to Beat Customer Service Phone Support

Popular Mechanics  "Hate waiting on hold for tech support and customer service? Here are the essential tips for getting past those incredibly annoying delays—and talking to an actual person."....

...."Another trick: If you are asked to "press 1 for English" or "2 for Spanish," press "2." The wait for Spanish operators is usually far shorter, and they are almost always bilingual, in case somebody accidentally presses the wrong button."

THE ANTI-CHRISTMAS NONSENSE

Neal Boortz  "It really doesn't matter whether your impact is positive or negative ... just so you get noticed? Just so you can say to your friends "Hey! I did that! I'm the one that got "Christmas" replaced on that sign!" Just think ... after centuries of celebrating Christmas YOU come along and managed to get the word banned somewhere! Wow! You're really something, aren't you?

"Ignore these cretins. And don't give me that "Happy Holiday's" stuff. It's Christmas ... always has been, still is. "
Art from Watton.org

Putin bullies hapless Obama to force Senate to ratify new START treaty (Updated)

Phil Boehmke  "Mr. Putin explained to Larry King that ratifying the new START treaty would be in the United States best interest and that failing to do so would be “very dumb.” Maybe it’s just me, but hearing Vladimir Putin tell us that ratifying the treaty is in our best interests does not assuage any of my concerns. If the treaty was really in our best interests, why would Mr. Putin feel compelled to threaten us with a ramped-up arms race is we don’t accept it?"

Don’t Rush New START    "The Obama administration is desperate to secure Senate ratification while the GOP caucus has 42 members (its current size), as opposed to 47 (its size as of January 3). A more Republican Senate means more White House concessions to Jon Kyl and other skeptics of the nuclear deal. Hence the aggressive effort to cajole Republicans into passing the treaty before they leave town for Christmas*. And hence the media-assisted campaign to demonize New START critics as baleful obstructionists motivated by raw partisanship."  National Review
* TW apologizes for our failure to change the word C-------- to "holidays". That just slipped by us.

Will Comcast Destroy Net Neutrality?

Slate  "If you've followed this argument so far, you deserve a medal. For everyone else, don't worry: This is how network neutrality fights go. When you click to watch a streaming movie, you imagine that the path from Netflix to your home computer is relatively straightforward. What actually happens, though, involves a patchwork of regulation, custom, and long-standing formal and informal deals about how the Internet should work. The problem is that the Internet continues to evolve, and nobody—not content providers like Netflix, network companies like Level 3, ISPs like Comcast, or perhaps especially regulators and lawmakers—know what it's going to look like in the future.
"The upshot? Kiss network neutrality goodbye. Not the idea—just the push for tough regulation."

What is Net Neutrality? From the comments to this article: "The government regulated "leveled playing field" results in shared suffering. Such would be the case for neutrality - more control, less quality, less freedom, resulting in less access due to less competition. Same liberal philosophies, same results. "....
"I can understand where the enforcement of net neutrality may seem to be an attractive prospect, but it will be the FCC which is enforcing it. If you believe that the government will do what is ethically correct - go for it. But, if you believe that the web, as we know it, has survived this long, with freedom for us all - as far as we know - without government interference, then this probably isn't going to be in our best interests.
"I suspect the very motives for the government wanting to get involved."

FCC still flogging net neutrality  "Do we really want regulators in the name of neutrality determining which apps should be available on the iPad? How fair it is that Kindle has fast book downloads? Should the FCC decide how many Facebook friends are too many? It's not even clear what net neutrality means in the context of these services.
"U.S. politicians and regulators would be better off focusing on ways to increase competition on the Internet-not looking for new ways to regulate it.

'Permitorium' will restrict production, force gas prices up

Washington Examiner "Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says he is “extremely disappointed” with the Obama administration for blocking development of significant oil and natural gas deposits off the coast of Virginia over the next seven years in the wake of the BP oil spill.
"The Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts were declared off-limits to drilling by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who said Wednesday that his department will delay two lease sales planned for next year in order to conduct environmental impact studies." 

This New START Is A Bad Deal At Any Time

Heritage  "The Obama Administration claims that New START contains no limits or constraints on our ability to protect ourselves through missile defense. This is false. There are at least five sections that limit missile defense:"...

‘Do it for Dmitry’ Is Poor Policy "This notion is severely flawed. First, as WikiLeaks documents published in Reuters demonstrate, U.S. diplomats correctly described Medvedev as playing the second fiddle to his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is calling the shots on the major policy issues.
"Second, in an outburst of a Cold War–style rhetoric, Medvedev, in his State of the Federation speech, just threatened the U.S. with a new arms race if the Obama Administration will not merge the NATO missile defenses with those of Russia—something the Kremlin demands."

Whoopi Goldberg Can’t Handle the Truth

Big Hollywood "From the fact that the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; to the fact that “90 percent of the terrorists” in the world are Muslim to the fact that Jews are still a more persecuted people group than any other, Goldberg sidestepped all by regurgitating the same liberal talking points again and again. She finally dismissed O’Reilly’s points altogether by saying that she and he “disagreed.” (Ironically, in her appearance on Huckabee two days prior to O’Reilly, Goldberg said: “I think fact outweighs assumption. So if you have facts in your hands, then you can talk.” Yet when O’Reilly had facts “in [his] hand,” Goldberg rejected them because they weren’t congruent with her worldview.)"

Muslim Leaders Blame FBI for Foiling Portland Bomb Plot

Jonathan S. Tobin "While the Muslim groups seem to be implying that the FBI agents acted as agents provocateurs, there is no evidence that this is the case. Left unsaid here is the fact that the alternative to such proactive tactics is a situation where legal authorities simply sit back and wait for the terrorists to do their worse, which reflects a pre-9/11 mentality that is simply unacceptable."

Obama Blocks US Companies From Drilling Off Coasts – Cuba Will Proceed With Drilling Plans (Updated)

Gateway Pundit  "The Castro Regime will begin drilling off the coast of Florida next year and will go deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.
"But, US companies are not so fortunate.

"The Obama Administration today issue a massive new ban on offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts."

Oil Drilling Moratorium is an Act of Treason "...estimates were that the administration’s actions would affect 65,000 members of the Appalachian workforce who would lose some of the highest-paying jobs available in the region. At least $12 billion in lost economic development was forecast.

"Nor is the Obama attack on the nation’s energy supply restricted to coal and oil.

"In October, the Obama administration demanded $880 million in exchange for a $7.5 billion loan guarantee necessary to the construction of a Maryland nuclear facility. The plant would have generated thousands of jobs as well as needed megawatts of electricity for that State’s residents. The project was cancelled." Alan Caruba, Warning Signs 

Obama's Offshore Drilling Ban Flip-Flop  "Do you think that the drilling ban lifting in October may have been designed to help Democrats on Election Day? Do you think the fact that the Dems got wiped out in the southern rim played into the decision to re-impose the ban-especially because some of the few remaining southern Democrats are becoming Republicans?

"And what evidence does Obama have now that he did not have a few weeks ago that justifies the re-imposition of the ban?"  Thomas Lifson, American Thinker

It’s Called Christmas-Get Over It!

Google Images

Big Government  "This year, the abominables didn’t even wait until December 1st. While Germans have celebrated Christmas Villages for over 500 years with little problem, The American Christmas Village was barely in its third year before the screams and protests began toppling the traditions. Crews were dispatched yesterday to remove the word “Christmas” from the sign that welcomes visitors to the market – did I mention it’s a private market? It will be replaced by the word: Holiday."

Bradley Manning: Poster Boy For 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Ann Coulter  "According to The New York Times, Bradley sought "moral support" from his "self-described drag queen" boyfriend. Alas, he still felt out of sorts. So why not sell out his country?
"In an online chat with a computer hacker, Bradley said he lifted the hundreds of thousands of classified documents by pretending to be listening to a CD labeled "Lady Gaga." Then he acted as if he were singing along with her hit song "Telephone" while frantically downloading classified documents."

Obama may delay Hawaiian vacation over tax fight

CNN  "Senior Republican aides scoffed at the idea that a tax cut deal could not be worked out before December 17, suggesting that perhaps the White House talk of a vacation delay may just be a negotiating ploy to push Republicans into a quick compromise since they have vacations waiting for them as well."
Lost time injury for that fat lip?