Game Over

I think John McCain just lost whatever chance he had of becoming President.

On one hand, McCain has robbed the Republicans of the one hammer they had, Obama was inexperienced. Here we have someone who had been mayor of a town smaller than the subdivision I live in and then has been governor for two years of a state with a smaller population than the county I live in. At a similar point in life when Obama was in Harvard Law School, Palin was entering beauty pageants.

On the other hand, the point that the Democrats have been making for the last week is that McCain has exhibited poor judgement. He was wrong about Iraq, he is wrong about Afghanistan, he is wrong about the economy and on and on. And he just made their point. If this is an example of the kinds of decisions he'll make once in office, we have been warned.

Hopefully, the voters of Alaska are outliers. The fact the Ted Stevens, who is under indictment!, just made it through the primaries indicates a wild-west approach to politics that provides a nice launching pad for someone like Palin.

So, the 26% of the electorate that continue to support W have been mollified by the selection of a right-to-life, anti-environment, creationist. The rest of us can look forward to the renewal of an American government worthy of pride.

Comcast Rant

Executive Summary: Comcast is a tone-deaf, ham fisted, anti-customer company can be responsive if you know how to reach them.

Update: I emailed a link to this post to We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com. Within an hour I received a phone call from Paul, who explained how I had tripped the auto-alarm and he said he'd lift the block on my outgoing email. The issue turned out to be related to my VPN use. I'm no longer blocked and I know how to prevent a recurrence. Happy ending, in my book. Comcast needs to get this level of care pushed down the pipeline.

I discovered last Sunday that for the previous three days none of my outgoing email had actually gone out. After doing some testing that involved borrowing a neighbor's wifi connection I determined that something was up with my Comcast connection.

I started a 'chat' with Comcast support and that person had no idea what was up.

While I waas chatting I checked my Comcast email. This is the account you get automatically when you get service from them, but I don't use it, never check it, don't care about it. Sadly, it's the email Comcast uses to communicate with its customers. (I've subsequently set my mail client to check it on a regular basis.)

I had an email from Comcast:
Dear Comcast Subscriber:
ACTION REQUIRED: Comcast has determined that your computer(s) have been used to send unsolicited email ("spam"), which is generally an indicator of a virus. For your own protection and that of other Comcast customers, we have taken steps to prevent further transmission of spam from your computer(s).

What followed was 7 paragraphs of help that only applied to Windows users. (use IE to get back in their good graces, check for viruses, etc. For the PC readers, Macs really don't get viruses and certainly not the 'let's hijack your mail program' stuff that you have to protect against. )

But the key thing is that they had tagged me specifically as a site that sent spam. This wasn't a generic "hey we're worried" email. They shut down my ability to send email because of behavior of my computer(s).

I'm reading this email while still chatting with the Comcast 'helper'. This is how my conversation with them went:

Marife > I really apologize, Lee, but we cannot address this issue. Mail servers that have sent high volumes of Spam to the comcast.net domain. Please review the error messages that you have received and the corresponding FAQ links provided within the bounce back message – this will help them to resolve their issue.
Lee_> I'm telling you there's been a mis-fire. I don't have anything to check. I send 5-10 emails a day. There is no spam.
Lee_> and the FAQ talks about how to configure my comcast.net account, which isn't the issue. I don't use that account.
Lee_> Who do I call to get this fixed, if you can't help me?
Marife > Lee, I have already reported this issue to our higher fix agency. We will do our best to resolve on this issue immediately.
Lee_> How can I track this, is there a ticket number?
Marife > May I ask for a reliable contact number that the technician can call?
Lee_> [redacted]
Marife > Thank you.
Lee_> Is there a ticket/case number for this?
Marife > The technician will call you just in case they need additional information.
Lee_> I would like the ticket number.
Marife > Yes Lee. Please give me a few moments.
Marife > Here is the ticket number CR132550367 for your reference.
Marife > Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?
Lee_> Yes, is there an estimated time for when this will be resolved?
Marife > We will do our best to resolve this issue within 24 hours, Lee.
Lee_> Thanks.
Marife > You are most welcome.
Marife > Thank you for contacting Comcast. If you need assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us through Live Chat or E-mail (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Simply visit www.comcast.net and select Help.
Marife > Goodbye and take care.

Ok, so Marife has escalated the case to 'our higher fix agency'.

24 hours and not able to send email. Forget that. I started poking around.

It turns out all they'd done was block port 25. A port lesson is beyond the scope of this rant, but think of it as, your house has 10,000 doors and someone wants you to keep from leaving so they lock one of the doors. There are still 9,999 options to get out, if you can get someone to meet you on the other side.

It turns out that my email provider listens for mail on port 26 as well as 25, so two hours after I realized the problem I was back in gear; everything was working.

But I have this outstanding issue with Comcast; they've tagged me as a spammer. Comcast unplugs customers without talking to them first. I'm a little worried that they might re-focus their attention on me. So, I try to follow up with Comcast support to see where things are at. On their web support form I post this question:
Is there a way to track a support ticket on-line?

I get this repsonse:
Thank you for contacting Comcast via e-mail.

I understand that you have questions regarding a support ticket.

I am sorry for the inconvenience, but this cannot be monitored online.
In reviewing your account, I am showing that there is no open ticket on your account.

a) I posted a web form, not sent an email.
b) NO OPEN TICKET?

I reply:
In an on-line chat with support I was given a ticket number of CR132550367
And just now, in the final straw, I get:
Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable.

The ticket number that you have provided has been closed. This is because you were advised to send as much information including the ip address to abuse@comcast.net.

Nowhere in any communication (including the original email sent to my Comcast account) was I advised to contact abuse@comcast.net.

I responded by asking them to tell me where I was told that, but at this point, I really don't care.

I live outside ATT's service area; I really have no credible option for high-speed internet service.

Why I like the inter-tubes


Somewhere back in the mid-60s I met the Dennis family. I've not been back to Bowling Green much the last few years to keep in touch in-person, but I'm warmly greeted each time I make it back.

Via Flickr I get an update. That's Dennis Pere y Mere with their great-grandson.

Doodles

I know a dad is supposed to think everything his child does is sheer brilliance, but really, I think these doodles Lilah did really convey a mood with a minimum of  detail.

Wow

It appears that the Democratic Party is going to nominate a black man to be the next President of the United States. Win, lose or draw, that's an amazing thing.

I'm hopeful he'll win, but regardless, it'll be nice to have a President that can, unassisted, put a sentence together. The next one will also be the first President since 1960 to come to the job from the Senate.

It will be interesting to see what itch Obama tries to scratch with his VP pick. I think Jim Webb would be interesting. A real military hero. At the end of the day, that's what McCain perceives as his own strength, obviously. In his campaign bio, McCain gives more space to his military heritage than to his political life and accomplishments. And the political accomplishments he offers could be summarized as a mea culpa for his involvement in the Keating scandal.

Those Appeasers!

Compare and contrast this:

The United States is open to bilateral talks with Iran or Syria at a conference in Baghdad this weekend if either country approaches U.S. officials to discuss stabilizing Iraq, a top State Department official said Thursday.

"If we are approached over orange juice by the Syrians or the Iranians to discuss an Iraq-related issue that is germane to this topic -- stable, secure, peaceful, democratic Iraq -- we are not going to turn and walk away," David Satterfield, the State Department's Iraq coordinator, told reporters.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/08/us.iran.iraq/index.html

With this:
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (Applause.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html

I guess it wouldn't have been appeasement if the unnamed senator from 70 years ago had been approached by Hitler over orange juice. In the Bush world view, if the bad guys call, we can talk. But the US can't call and talk. Got it.

And, Lord help me, in this speech, Bush refers to "suiciders." Apparently not for the first time."