Thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

Why would you be riding around in a open vehicle (standing head first out of a sunroof) while there are million idiots who want to murder you????? That is one question I have today. I feel bad about the whole scene in Pakistan....But let's face it....That region of the world makes Iran look like Frontier Land at Disneyland! Every time I see the dude in his military gear, he looks more nervous than a whore in Church! On another subject.....Why do we see more of Bill Clinton campaigning than his lovely bride Hillary? The Clinton handlers are getting the king of the stump out there to push his wife and get the crowds gathering. Isn't it just stupid how long we drag out our elections? In most countries it is wrapped up in a few weeks from start to finish. We have to hear their lies for (almost) another year until the election. I'm sick of all of them NOW! The Mormon, The religious Zealot, The lawyer with the crooked smile, The half ass actor, The Mayor who has done it all and more......and of course America's favorite gal...Hillary who I despise. Nobody can appear on my Television and make me more angry than her....In the male category it would be Bush & Dr Phil. The good news is ...Larry David announced he is going to do another season of "Curb your enthusiasm" on HBO. That folks is the best thing on my tube and I'm looking forward to another hilarious season. Back to politics, I'm still a Rudy fan....I can't figure out why he did not put some of his war chest money into Iowa & New Hampshire.....He has really lost some steam.

That is all for now.....Later.

Stumptown Blogger.

HEY..LOOK AT ME..I'M AN A-HOLE

I don't know about you but these contraptions hanging from their ear really disturbs me. For some odd reason by owning & displaying such a devise on the head makes them appear (IN THEIR MIND) more important than others....These high tech mobile phone freaks are really on the fast track and have important people to do biz with. Yeah right. If you want to chat on the phone take the damn thing out of your pocket and rap on it! The ultimate creep out is when they are in a Que to buy something and the clerk makes a gallant attempt to communicate with them, while they talk away with the Motorola stuck to their head. These people look so pathetic and are beyond rude. I feel these very important folks should be taken to a camp & be interned with others just like them....or a little water torture would teach em a good lesson. Oh...Merry Christmas.
STUMPTOWN BLOGGER 12/24/07

THE JOY OF DOING BUSINESS WITH CAPITAL 1

I don't want to drag this one out...but a bogus charge appeared on my "NO HASSLE MILES" Capital One Card. The charge was for $386.50 to a company called "Webtrade International" .....To give them the benefit of the doubt I called the phone number to see if I did indeed buy something from them. The first negative-red light-warning sign was they do not answer their phone! CLUE #1 that this proud American credit card holding customer was screwed by some hackers in Texas. So the process begins with a call to the credit card company to remove the charge from my statement. Are you ready for this noise?????

CALL #1 -Hold time 1 hour 20 minutes -(then dis-connected)

CALL #2- I was flipped more times than a Hillary Clinton speech.....was on hold for 35 minutes and then a human did pick up and told me it would go to the fraud division.

CALL #3- This is the call when I received the NEXT statement and the charge was posted again (after 1 month of it being resolved)

This was over one hour wait time at 6am in the morning....AND THEN THEY PICKED UP...and guess what Boys & Girls???? IT WAS A MEXICAN THAT COULD NOT SPEAK ENGLISH.....yes yes yes yes...I punched #1 for English...NOT #2 for Spanish....then there was clicking & no music...no guy saying over & over & over that he APPRECIATES my business..but there are a shitload of people ahead of me... what he should say is this on that message

"thanks for holding....due to our company hiring just the minimum amount of people to take your call so we can reap a higher profit for our shareholders and overseas owners.....You can just sit there and wait until one of our poorly trained employees that get paid $8.00 a month in India decides to take your call and most likely will do nothing for you anyway...."

wouldn't that be great! Well...here is where I'm at with this.....Today after one hour on the phone and being switched twice, a nice girl told me she would look into it & remove the charge while the fraud division gets it again.

I think they just try to wear you out! So after spending hours of my time with these yahoos...and writing a letter over a month ago....I'm sure it will just keep re-appearing monthly. This card is headed for the shredder. You just can't beat American Express! I have never waited more than 5 minutes with them. AND THEY SPEAK ENGLISH.

MAD AS HELL & WON'T TAKE IT ANYMORE......

Today I was in a major regional mall where Macy's has a Holiday store outside of their dept store. I walk in looking for a nice ornament to purchase & notice that on EVERY ornament in the store is a tag hanging that reads "MADE IN CHINA". I mention to this lady standing next to me "Isn't it amazing that everything in this store is made in China!"....She responds "I just accept it now"...Well you know what? I don't accept it. My wife & I are making a big effort to look at tags on merchandise and pass on the item if it is MADE IN CHINA. When Ross Perot was running for President many years ago he was laughed at when he made a big deal about all of jobs heading to China- Mexico- South America etc. I clearly recall Gore sitting there with Larry King and Perot horse laughing at his predictions of America being a consumption country and making squat. Now that I'm making a strong effort in searching out "Made in the USA" labels on goods, it is not an easy exercise! What is made here anymore?
I'm going to create a new web site letting the world know where to find everything from Socks to toys that are MADE IN THE USA. As the famous saying goes from the motion picture network..."I'M MAD AS HELL & WON'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!
(as soon as my "Made in America" site is up you will be the first to know!)

SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT THIS GUY.........

You want to like this GOP runner...but there is something weird about ol Huck. He looks more creepy every time I hear this guy open his trap. Yeah I know he is real religious & is a ex Minister yaddah yaddah. That is my first worry! Many of these religious far right bible thumpers can be real trouble in many different departments! We have seen it many times before. Did you know that he is pushing a 28% national sales tax? Yeah....28 that converts to over 30% when the Wall St Journal did the math in Wednesdays edition. It is all yap yap yap of course. They all talk like they will actually get their ideas done the minute of being sworn in to office. We all know it does not come that easy! Hillary the bitch with her FREE FREE FREE health care....Obama with all his vast experience! Thompson looking more like a washed up actor & political hack by the day...Edwards running around with the Used Car Salesman smile.....Uggghhhhhhh..........Why can't this country have a superstar running for office? Someone we can really rally behind? If the election was held today, my money would be on RUDY. I know he has baggage and all that noise, but he is the only one running in the pack that in my opinion has accomplished many hurdles in his career.....What has HILLARY CLINTON done? I just love it when she spats off about how her EXPERIENCE will benefit us!!!!!!!!!! She is pounding that message in every appearance. I think she must actually believe that herself. She learned from the master! But back to ol Huck......He looks like the guy you would see in the back of the adult book store wearing a long overcoat, flipping through a Hustler Magazine. Hey so be it, but do you really think this cat would make a great Pres??? This is the most important election in my lifetime, and I'm not jazzed about any of them. Bush has been a huge disappointment to me, now its clean up time and there is nobody who is a shoe-in. Maybe for once the Convention will be interesting.

THE VERDICT PLEASE.....................(drum roll).......

Wall St Journal, USA Today, Time Magazine....all the major pulps reported that coffee lovers prefer the Java at McDonald's over Starbucks. I just had to try this out! I stood in line with kids screaming, Moms ready to have major nervous breakdowns, elderly folks sitting in the mix of all this madness and clerks who can barely speak English. I made it to the front of the line & ordered one cup of black coffee. The packaging of the cup was actually quite impressive.
And now its the moment to see if all the Mickey D's coffee hype could actually be true! OH MY GOD....It was like drinking black tar that was left sitting overnight. Who in there right mind could possibly think that McDonald's coffee could be better than Starbucks? It was like a step below Denny's....only it had a dark color (Denny's is very transparent and watery if my memory serves me)....but it was so awful I trashed it.....This was after walking in to my shop where my Manager exclaimed " WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT???!!!???? The P.R people at the McDonald's corporation have done a stellar job getting the story told by all the major publications. 5 stars in that department. By the way...I have found a great little family owned coffee shop in my area to make my caffeine stop in the morning. The coffee beats Starbucks and McDonald's by a long mile.