Comcast internet service down for over nine hours last night

If I had come to expect anything good out of the anal wart posing as an ISP, I suppose I might be pissed:

So yeah, whenever the wind blows around these parts, my cable internet (and sometimes TV service) goes down. Isn’t this what those  Comcast commercials against satellite TV  are usually about? Anyhow, from about 12 AM to 9:38 AM EST (I know that because I had their automated system call me so I could tell when I could send the email I was typing at 12 AM) my internet service was down.

It’s not the first time something like this has happened, it seems to happen at least once a month or two. I might not even be so mad about it except that I have to pay almost $70 a month for their crappy internet service and “digital” basic TV package. About 2 actual channels out of the 40 I get are digital, and most of the rest are bullshit 24 hour shopping channels, bullshit 24 hour “Send Jesus your money” channels, bullshit local channels I could get over an antenna made out of a coat hanger, and a few bullshit “movie” channels that repeat the same 30 year old movies and  even edit some of them so you won’t have to experience the “Seven words you can’t say on television”. In fact, I think it’s fair to say I only have their TV channels because without them, they have it worked out so I’d only pay about $6 less.

Between the garbage posing as cable TV and Microsoft using Windows 7 to DRM the few things you do want to see, I’d say that without the almost-certainly-illegal monopolistic bundling, cable TV’s goose would be cooked.

I usually don’t even bother calling to complain anymore, it’s been like this ever since 2004 where if you called due to slow or interrupted service, their blanket excuse was that “We’re an ‘entertainment’ service and don’t guarantee any level of service”. That may have worked for them when it was just your cable TV going down, but people rely on their internet service having reasonable uptime these days.

Good thing I have a cell phone instead of Comcast’s phone service.

I’d hate to have 911 be unavailable for nine hours because the peckerheads at Comcast are holding their 10 years obsolete cable network together with popsicle sticks and chewing gum.

Comcast can give you the shittiest and most overpriced service available out in these parts because they have a two-party dictatorship with the phone company that the FCC lets them get away with while people in Sweden think nothing of dedicated lines that are five times as fast for one-tenth the price of Comcast.

The last eight years, we had a Republican administration that thrived on deregulating everything and leaving consumers, workers, and  the environment to fend for themselves while telecom executives ran the FCC, big oil ran the Dept. of the Interior and the EPA (and literally had parties with prostitutes and cocaine in the government offices), and various other big business interests like Walmart ran what was left of OSHA and the Dept. of Labor.

Unfortunately things don’t seem to be getting a lot better under Obama, he seems to be continuing the fine Bush legacy of a fox in every hen house  by appointing RIAA lawyers and executives to the Dept. of Justice.

It’s really unfortunate, because I had kind of hoped he would take out the trash that Bush and Co. had left on our front lawns, instead he seems to be raking the trash over to cover the backyard too.

I kind of wonder how long he can continue the George W. Bush policies before even the majority of liberals disown him. Bush managed to have a 76% disapproval rating, but I’m starting to wonder if this administration is playing “Can you beat this?”.

The “I inherited this catastrophe from my predecessor” line is starting to wear thin, and I think the people want answers as to why in the hell no steps are being taken to secure American jobs and build American infrastructure while the current president is busy escalating the problems that he’s supposed to be bringing to an end.

Anyhow, since Comcast is just an “entertainment” service, why can’t I just pay them when they entertain me? Oh, they could never afford that.

At least the FCC is hard at work making sure I can’t hear the seven words.

Much ado about Obama’s healthcare reform. Can anything come from this?

The healthcare in the United States is in shambles. It mirrors pretty much the rest of the American Aristocracy wherein the most and very best of our resources go straight to the top 10% of our most well-to-do population, and the remaining 90% are forced to slug it out over the remaining 47% of the wealth.

The Republican FUDster Bag O’ Tricks has traditionally been to encourage infighting between members of the servant caste so that we keep electing them to office based on divisive social issues (Guns, Gods, and Gays platform), or framing all social spending as “punishing families”, like the families that make upwards of half a million dollars per year. I know that nobody in *my* family makes half a million dollars a year, and I doubt that most people reading this are doing any better.

The fact remains that if you are a Republican, and making less than six figures a year, you’re a pawn at best, you are being used to stab fellow human beings in the back to perpetuate a greed and gluttony that you yourself are not even benefiting from. They’ve convinced you to beat other people over the head, forcing them to respond to you so that no attention is ever turned to their atrocities.

Republicans appeal to the very worst of us, the very sickness of human spirit that derives some pleasure from harming others (war), subjugating others (Christians), and the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth (That top 10% I mentioned). On a moral level, I refuse to believe that there is any difference in a typical Republican from people that set cats on fire just to watch them burn.

“Don’t you ever go away? Haven’t you caused enough trouble for one lifetime? So what is it this time, Mr. Bester? Hunting out freedom-fighters, pulling wings off flies, annexing Sudetenland.”

-Zach Allen to Mr. Bester from Babylon 5 (I always think of it when I mention Republicans)

Moving on though, President Obama has announced that he wants healthcare reform, and is pushing for it before the Congressional recess in August. This would be good except that it sends the signal to the Republicans that if they can use procedural stall tactics and “poison the well” amendments for another month, that they can defeat him. If we do get any kind of healthcare reform, it will be rushed, not well thought out, and due to Republican meddling, likely watered down and saturated with handouts to pharmaceutical companies, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Republicans guaranteed the 2014 bankruptcy of Medicare in their “Part D” “reform” that does not allow the government to negotiate for better prescription drug prices for Seniors.

This is totally the wrong course of action. The President should wait until Congress resumes and the Republicans can no longer reach into their bag-o-tricks for stall tactics, and are forced to deal with the issue on the Democrats terms. Why did we elect a Democratic majority to govern if they’re going to foul the ball and let the Republican special interests prevail?

This whole thing reeks of a disaster waiting to happen and Obama has idiotically tossed the ball to the scummy Congressional Republican minority.

Operation Bonehead is a go!

Biden just won’t learn to shut up, leaves door open to Israel dragging the US into a conflict with Iran.

From the “Please get him away from the press” dept. :)

Joe Biden, known widely for being constitutionally incapable of shutting the fuck up, had this to say regarding a theoretical Israeli strike against Iran to knock out or disrupt their nuclear program.

“[The United States] cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.”

Think about that for a second. Israel, which has a population that roughly rivals the US state of Indiana, whose borders are sometimes only a few miles wide, is free to launch an unprovoked attack on Iran, without worrying about the United States stopping them.

Now I’m not saying that Israel hasn’t come up with some brilliant military campaigns in the past, but they’re also not exactly in a position to call down the entire military forces of all their Arab neighbors on top of them at once either.

Despite divine intervention (and I know some Christian nutcases think their tin god will swoop down from heaven and do just that), Israel would in all likelihood simply start a war it can’t handle with the sole purpose being to drag us in on their side.

Do I think a sovereign nation  has a right to declare war on its neighbors? Absolutely. To the point that it can either back up their campaign by themselves or pay the consequences for their own failure.

Clearly Israel is like a person that constantly breaks the law, gets themselves in trouble, and then calls their parents to come bail them out. Israel wants all of the benefits of being an independent state, but none of the liability. (They want to have the United States continuously foot the bill for their arrogance.)

Ideally what the US line should be is  ”Knock yourselves out, but don’t come crawling back to us when you get your asses kicked.”, or perhaps a coming of age cake that says “Congratulations, you’re a man now. Don’t call us if you get thrown in jail. Love, Mom and Dad.” :P