Hey Ron Paul....Time Is Up!

Come on Dr. Paul, it's been time to quit since before you started. Spreading conspiracy theories and rhetoric laced with hate and tiny specks of truth isn't going to do it. Putting an "R" behind your name this time isn't going to do any good either. The "R" stands for Republican, not Radical.

Ralph Nader and Ross Perot found out that most of America is not extreme. Most Americans are not extreme liberal, extreme conservative, or extreme Libertarian. The majority of our country votes down the middle, some being Democrats, some being Republicans. But down the middle.

On Super Tuesday you finished dead last. You were even beaten in California by a candidate who was no longer running. You have not been close anywhere, not even in the ballpark.

Some possible contenders have already dropped out. Mitt Romney unselfishly bowed out for the good of the Republican Party. John Edwards, Rudy Guilliani, and Fred Thompson understood that they didn't have the support needed to win. Some of them even had more total votes and delegates than you did....even without Super Tuesday. These men aren't quitters, they just have the class to know when to exit gracefully.

I appreciate that you really believe what you believe. I even agree with you on some issues. I have enjoyed the entertainment you have provided for us. But at this point, it is only your "Blimp" sized ego and twisted rhetoric keeping you in it.

Come on, Ron.......it's time to grow up.

Super Bowl 2008....Breaking Records

The New York Giants beat the previously undefeated New England Patriots 17-14 at Arizona Cardinals Stadium, spoiling the Pat's chances at a perfect season. With a television audience of 97.5 million viewers, it was the most watched Super Bowl ever.....and also possibly the best.

Only the final episode of "MASH" in 1982, with 106 million viewers, can boast a larger audience when it comes to TV in America.

This is good news for the NFL, football, and television. Viewers were up 5% this year with an average of 15.8 million viewers per game league wide, according to the Associated Press.

Now I don't want to rain on your parade NFL, but if you look at the big picture, you are far from being Numero Uno. Soccer (football to the rest of the world) occupies that spot, and probably always will.

World Cup 2006 in Germany was televised on 376 different channels all over the world. There were 26.3 billion viewers for the tournament. The finals drew 715.1 million viewers for that one game.

The only way the NFL can ever compete with soccer is to go global. And they have been trying to do that now for awhile, without much luck. Almost everywhere on earth except in the US, soccer is king.

The reason NFL football is having trouble outside our borders is because of the pace and length of the game. The average NFL game can run anywhere from 2-1/2 hours to 4 hours in length. In American football each player only plays 5 minutes or less in a 60 minute game that takes up to 4 hours to complete. Compared to soccer, where each player plays 90 minutes with only a short halftime break. No timeouts, no comercial breaks, a total of 3 substitutes per game, and the game last 90 minutes. To someone used to watching this flowing, non stop, continuous action...NFL is s l o w.

The World Cup 2006 tournament games, excluding the finals, averaged 1.7 million viewers in the US. The 16.9 million american viewers for the finals was an increase of 152% from the 2002 World Cup. There are 3.2 million youth soccer players in the US now, making it the most popular participation sport in our country. PopWarner says they have 380,000 participants, lagging way behind soccer in popularity.

Living in North Alabama, American football is in my blood. I played several years of organized football in my childhood, and year 'round in the neighborhood. But after coaching soccer for 23 years now, football is getting harder to watch.

The NFL is here to stay. But it looks like they are facing a difficult task globally. Outside of this country, American football is seen as a novelty. It is going to be hard to sell a slow moving, stop and go, 3 hour plus game.

The 2006 Super Bowl was a great game. But man, was it slow.

Here We Go Again

Here we go again. Florida…..politics…..and the courts.

Florida’s Democratic Party made the decision to move their primary date even though they knew it would cost them their delegates at the Democratic Convention. Michigan has done the same thing, deciding they could do as they please too.

Enter Hillary Clinton. After taking 50% of the Democratic vote in Florida, all of a sudden she thinks that Florida’s delegates should be heard, she thinks they should have their delegates reinstated. Hillary wasn’t worried about the voters of Florida until she won. Of course the Democrats always change the rules in the middle of the game if the rules don’t suit them.

Remember the embarrassment that Al Gore caused our nation? After he lost in Florida, fair and square, he decided that people sitting around tables peering at ballots should divine the intent of the voter. Al Gore didn’t think the voters were smart enough to cast a vote without his help. After all was said and done, any way you counted the ballots….Al Gore lost. The Democrats still owe our nation and the voters of Florida an apology, but don’t hold your breath.

Remember the corrupt New Jersey election scandal in 2002? Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli was admonished by the Senate ethics committee for taking gifts from David Chang for his intervention in business deals in North and South Korea. Scandal plagued Senator Torricelli was trailing in the polls to Republican candidate Douglas Forrester by double digits just weeks before the election. It was obvious with all the mounting troubles of Torricelli and his position in the polls that he could not win. The Democrats held a one vote lead in the Senate, a Republican win would put them in a minority. The Democratic solution? Have Torricelli pull out of the race and replace him with someone who could win. The problem was that New Jersey law says candidates cannot be replaced less than 51 days before the election. That didn’t stop the Democrats, they went to court! The unethical New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that voters should have a choice, that 51 days didn‘t really mean 51 days. The voters of New Jersey already had a choice, vote for Forrester or Torricelli. They cheated again, changing the rules in the middle of the game to suit their situation. This is the Democrat’s way of doing business. In their opinion, laws and ethics only apply to Republicans.

Being a Democrat, I am sure Hillary will be able to skirt the law again. Nobody does that better than the Clintons.

AOL Needs To Be Run Out Of Business

Last week a robbery happened. It was a very clever crime, committed by a very devious and vile organized crime group. I didn’t discover the crime until three days later. It was too late to undo the damage.

Who committed this crime?

AOL and Time Warner.

They stole money from me, and I don’t even have AOL. If you have AOL, or if you have ever had AOL, pay attention. You could be next.

I had AOL dial-up service early last year. I called AOL (in the past this was the only way to cancel service). After quite a lengthy word battle with the service rep, who could not comprehend the concept that I did not want AOL, my service was cancelled. I went online and cancelled also, just to be sure. Problem solved (or so I thought).

Last week AOL billed my checking account for $32.90 (their outrageous monthly fee for poor quality service). Since I am disabled and not working, this caused two checks to bounce. My bank notified me about the overdraft and told me AOL had billed my account. The battle had begun.

I called AOL to get the problem fixed. After a 10 minute wait, a polite young lady informed me that they had billed me for my AOL service. I told her that I had cancelled my service last July, and needed to have the $32,90 credited back to my account along with the $66.00 to cover the overdraft charges. She said they could not refund the money because I had AOL service and had to pay for it. After another futile five minutes I asked to speak to her supervisor. He happened to be a Pakistani man named Mark Anderson. Anderson, I thought, was an odd name for anyone from Pakistan. He rudely informed me that my account was still in effect. I asked why I had not been billed for six months, and he tells me that my free AOL that came on my Dell computer was activated because the free period was up. After 15 minutes of vigorous discussion he says he will credit my account for $32.90, but he was unable to pay the overdraft charges AOL had caused. He informs me that it “impossible” for him to pay for the overdraft because that was the banks fault…..What??? The banks fault?

I spent over two hours talking to two more service reps and two more managers. Again, the managers were Pakistanis. One was named Jim Anderson, the other was Bill Anderson. There must be some sort of Anderson revolution going on there.

After doing some research I found some interesting facts about AOL and Time Warner.

1.) I was not the only one who got screwed by AOL. They lost two million customers last year alone.

2.) AOL had entered into a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General of New York for the same type of business practices. You can read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/technology/24cnd-online.html

3.) AOL had entered into a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General of Florida for the same type of business practices. You can read about it here: http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsreleases/7784A3DA8241EDEB8525724200511B75

4.) AOL had entered into a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General of California, joined by the other 48 states and the District of Columbia for the same type of business practices. You can read about it here: http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/2007-07-11_BrownResolvesConfusingAOLCancellationPolicy7-11.pdf

AOL and Time Warner have been lying and stealing from their customers since their inception. If you have AOL, cancel NOW! Please cancel before you get screwed! You can cancel AOL by going online at cancel.aol.com, or call 1-888-265-8008.

I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint with the State Attorney General of Alabama. I will write again to keep you informed on how the complaints are going.

If every single person who uses AOL would cancel TODAY, we could put AOL out of business. Now, wouldn’t that be nice!

AOL sucks!

**********Update January 31, 2008**********

Today AOL called. I was told that the $32.90 I was billed for August 2007, after I cancelled in July 2007, would be refunded if I would settle and clear up the complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I informed the gentleman that they bounced two checks costing me $66.00 that they still refused to cover. He said that the refunding of August 2007 payment would be all they could do......

I guess we decided to split it down the middle. The January 2008 billing that started all of this has shown back up in my account. AOL says it will credit another $32.90 for the August 2007 bill, the one after the July cancellation. I guess AOL has refunded all of the money they took unethically. I am still out $66.00.... a lesson to everyone out there on AOL paid service, there is a risk for using AOL.

1% Effective

I want a president who gets things done. I want a president who shows great leadership, a president who can work with the legislature and the American people to get things acomplished. A president who can lead this country.

It is impossible to research everything every Presidential candidate says. They are ALL extremely effective in stretching the truth, taking credit where credit is not due, deflecting the truth and telling you what you want to hear. They can morph from one personna to another in the blink of an eye. How can you tell what a candidate is really all about? Who can get the job done? Who really stands for what?

Look at their record.

One of the more interesting and controversial candidates is Ron Paul. Dr. Paul has a very good website where you can read his position on the issues. Here is a link to Ron Paul's website: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

The biggest problem with Ron Paul's record is his complete ineffectiveness as a Congressman. During the 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th Congress (the info is from his Congressional website: http://www.house.gov/paul/)he proposed 286 bills. He was only able to get 3 bills passed, an effective percentage of 1.04%. Thats right, only 1% of his bills passed.

To add to his 3 bills passed, Ron Paul also had 15 bills rejected. The recorded vote against these 15 bills was an astonishing 4782 no to 1081 yes! His rejected bills were voted against by 77% of Congress.

One of Ron Pauls favorite subjects is taxes. Of the 286 bills he has sponsored, a full 30% of them pertain to taxes. He proposes to abolish income taxes, then follow with a bill to give a tax break to different special interest groups. If all members of Congress had followed the example of Ron Paul, there would be 46,010 different tax proposals and exemptions for Congress to deal with. An astounding 93.7% of his bills are floundering in committee. These excesses are a real burden to Congress.

Just to give a contrast to Dr. Pauls record, I looked up the record of another fellow Texas Representitive, Democrat Sheila Jackson-Lee.

Ms. Jackson-Lee is known for her arrogance and missuse of tax payers dollars. She was able to get 19 bills passes in one session of Congress. Even though she is known to be difficult and a bit eccentric, she was 28.8% effective. No way she could be president, but she was 28 times more effective at her job than Ron Paul.

Presidents require leadership! Leadership requires that you set a course that others can and will follow. You must be able to be get things done. You must be able to work well with others.