Jackie Mason On John McCain

Need more evidence and thought on John McCain and his misleading statements? How about this for an unlikely source — Jackie Mason!!

“Straight Talk Express”?? Here’s The Truth On McCain

CNN Jeff’s Toobin laid it out plain as day for people after the California debate. McCain has continually misrepresented Mitt’s position and it’s about time someone in the mainstream media called him on it.

Schoolboy deaf for nine years regains hearing after cotton bud pops out of his ear | the Daily Mail

All excited to get universal health care courtesy of Hillary or Obama? You might want to read this article first!

Schoolboy deaf for nine years regains hearing after cotton bud pops out of his ear | the Daily Mail

Fred At Home in Tennessee

Fred is really hitting his stride now on the campaign trail. This is a long, but outstanding speech outlining many of his positions. I see him there in Tennessee and a feel my ridge-runner ancestors just jabbing me to do more to support him.

Here Comes Fred!

I’ll let him speak for himself!

Obama???? This is My Rock Star!

Fred Thompson is set to announce on September 6 and I’ve been waiting for the day for a while. Thompson is the best chance for a true Republican to win the nomination and the presidency. I don’t agree with him on everything (I think I’m the only one who agrees with me on everything) but to me he’s the obvious choice.

He has a strong record as a US Senator, he’s plain spoken and relates well to the people, and most of all he’s a bit of a maverick — he’s not afraid to take stances not fully in lock-step with the party or any particular special interest. There is no other candidate running for the GOP nomination more clearly ready to take on the mantle of Reagan and lead the party back.

Alright….call me a heretic!

These days if you fail to acknowledge global warming as an established fact (now supported by the Supreme Court apparently because of a chiding for a failure to turn over masses amounts of documents in a court case) you will be branded a heretic. Guilty as charged I suppose! Check out the Heartland Institute’s Global Warming page for more heresy!

A Reminder From A Marine

The best thing I’ve seen worth watching on YouTube in a long time. A reminder about what the War on Terror is all about.

Vonage - Poor Peformance, Poor Service

For a little over a year I was using Vonage for my phone and fax service at my home office. At first things went pretty well but it wasn’t long before I got the calls of people who couldn’t fax me. Time and time again I would get calls from people trying to fax me something and it wouldn’t go through. Then time and time again I would try to fax something to someone else only to get a “poor signal” error from the fax machine. Clearly Vonage wasn’t cutting it for the fax.

Couple this with the regular website outages making me unable to visit my call history, my voicemail online, my phone features, etc and I had a pretty miserable experience with them. They would take the cake when it was time to cancel though.

I did my order with the local phone company, went through the process to get my numbers switched and FCC regulations require a 3rd party administrator even to verify I did, in fact, wish to have my phone numbers switched to the local phone company. So they processed all of that and then my local phone company called a few weeks stating Vonage was claiming I had more lines than that so they were denying the transfer. I told them these were the only two numbers I had with Vonage and have ever had with them, they managed to get it straightened out.

So I have been happily back with my local phone company for a month when I get a charge for Vonage still. Strange since my phone numbers are no longer attached to my Vonage device and obviously I have no way to make or receive calls without a Vonage phone number. Apparently they are happy to keep charging me though. Despite all their online features they make you call in to cancel.

So I call and up front the announced wait is 15-20 minutes so I waited the 20 minutes until my call was taken. They cancel my account and say I should have called them to cancel. I advised them the 3rd party administrator had contacted them to switch my numbers and advise I was canceling my service, that was sufficient notice. I was told I would need to speak to someone in the “credits” department.

I speak to the person in the credits department who asks to call me by my first name and is very polite. I tell her I would like a credit for the month of service they charged me for the single phone call that was on the statement. She said she was unable to do that as their rules require the customer call in to cancel. I said they had been contacted and told the number was switching and they said their policy is that only the customer can cancel to protect my privacy. I told her I had been amply protected by federal regulations and that charging me for service I didn’t use was in violation of that regulation. Apparently that response wasn’t on her script, she said she understood my frustration but she had no authority to give me the credit. I told her I would like to speak to someone who does then. She said she is a supervisor. I reminded her she said she didn’t have authority so I wanted to speak to her manager. She said she didn’t have one. I told her I didn’t think she is the president of the company so I do believe she has a manager and I would like to speak to him. She said he was busy and that he doesn’t have voicemail. I told her that was fine, I can see why Vonage has a wait for 20 minutes to cancel your account.

So, you have been warned, keep my experience in mind when considering your options for phone service.

Gangs In Round Lake — An Open Letter To Parents

Unless you haven’t looked around our community much lately then the activity of gangs in Round Lake should be of no surprise to you. While there are a number of possible explanations they all really don’t matter at the end of the day. Gangs have been and will continue to be in Round Lake, this is nothing new. What is new are the methods and the nature of their activity. They don’t just spray paint a wall anymore, they post their exploits on MySpace and You Tube including videos of murders and drive-by shootings. They don’t just settle for walls in out of the way places anymore either, they tag (vandalize with their gang symbols) the hallways of our schools or break in and completely trash a school. Finally, if you thought that they just wanted to recruit high school boys or middle school boys you are sadly mistaken, they’re recruiting our elementary students and girls now as well.

I’m not posting this to create some sort of panic or mass hysteria — our local police departments and the staff at our schools are hard at work doing all they can to keep the gangs out. What needs to happen is the people of this community, especially the parents need to wake up and recognize this problem. What’s different now is parents rationalizing or even making excuses for their child’s gang activity — “they’re just drawings”, “it’s just a list of phone numbers”, or “just because he draws it doesn’t mean he’s in that gang” are common phrases I’ve heard from parents when confronted with the truth, the absolute reality, that their child is involved with a gang.

As a school board member it’s time for me to tell to you what my job is and this is solely my opinion, it’s how I’ve conducted myself since I was first elected and it’s how I will continue to represent this community as long as I serve. I owe no duty to any individual student in Round Lake Area Schools, I owe a collective duty to the more than 6,000 students we serve.

I owe them a safe learning environment and any time I have a vote in keeping that environment safe that is what I am going to vote for. The school is no substitute for parents. The school is not there to straighten out these kids and get them out of the gang. The school is not there to tolerate behavior related to gang activity. The school is there to educate.

We do all that we can — our staff members, the police, government and non-profit community groups are all there to try to help parents where we can. We’re more than happy to help and steer you in the right direction to get help with your child. However, if you continue to live in a state of denial about your child, if you continue to make excuse after excuse for them, if you continue to tolerate their activity and somehow try to explain it or legitimize it there is going to be very little that we can do. So I’m telling you now that the resources are there to help you but the first step is to accept and recognize that your child has a problem. Don’t make excuses for it and don’t fault yourself for it because even kids in good homes can fall in with the wrong crowd and become involved with gangs. You should fault yourself though if you do not stand up, recognize it and draw the line with your child that it won’t be accepted because that is the line I have drawn with them.

For the most part I don’t believe in “zero tolerance” but one area where I do believe in it is gang activity. If your child “represents” (wears clothing identified with gangs, draws pictures affiliated with gangs, vandalizes school property with gang graffiti) in our buildings that is gang activity, that is not allowed under our code of conduct and your child is subject to discipline up to and including a two-year expulsion from school. If your child comes before me and there is conclusive evidence of this I can tell you right now I will be voting to expel your child for two years from school, the maximum penalty we can impose by law. If your child comes before me on the school board they will have had many chances to change their behavior unless the act they committed is severe.

Some people may cry that I’m only driving that child to the gang and I say to you nothing could be further from the truth. That child was driven there long before I became involved. My duty, my obligation, is to the more than 6,000 students in our district who are there to get an education in a safe environment. I will not jeopardize that, I will not shirk my duty to provide that safe environment because I’m concerned about what will happen to any individual student who has obviously already made a choice about what he/she is coming to school for.

Below are some links to information related to gang awareness. Use the resources the community is providing and if you’re still confused, still don’t know where to turn I suggest you call the police at 847-270-9111 and they will put you in touch with people who can help.

Round Lake Area Parents Guide To Gangs
Round Lake Area Parents Guide To Gangs (Spanish)
“Gangs Or Us” - Parent Resources Page
Lake County Circuit Court - Gang Awareness
Lake County Circuit Court - Gang Alert
City of Aurora - Gang Awareness
San Antonio (TX) Police Department - Gang Awareness Handbook

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