Incompetence and un-professionalism

Today I am going on a more personal rant.
I am sick to death of incompetence and un-professional behavior for services that I pay for. We have come to expect such from all levels of government lately. This is even more true if we are not among the wealthy class of American society. Call me old fashioned, or reactionary or whatever else you wish, I will NOT tolerate this in things that I pay for directly.
The case of this rant is the "service", though that is being overly generous to use that abused term in this matter. I have Hughes net satellite internet. This used to be Direcway service. Now, when I had the old 4000 system and then upgraded to the 6000, the service was very good. Yes, every thunderstorm caused an outage. Thing is, the service returned as soon as the storm had passed.
With this new 7000, even on a crystal clear day, if a squirrel farts in the woods along the fence line, we lose the signal. This is NOT the fault of Hughes, they have been most polite and helpful, as much as they can be. However, when the signal strength is, at BEST 35, there is little or nothing tech support can do to help.
The last time I called tech support, the third level in fact, and told them my signal strength, the tech was totally surprised that I had an internet connection. EVERY tech has told me the ABSOLUTE minimum is 45!
The "installer"(?) has told me more than once that signal strength does not matter! Hmmm, 37 weeks of electronics and radio repair school in the Marines, three plus years of installing and maintaining microwave radio equipment, 5 years of building and testing microwave antennas and waveguides, 10 years of building, testing, and maintaining radar equipment, and NOW, suddenly, signal strength doesn't matter? As I asked more than one tech support person on the phone in the last weeks, when did they change the laws of physics? When did they change how electro-magnetic signals are sent and received? No technician has ever told me those things had changed! Interesting.
The "installer"/ "repair guy" just keeps giving poor, bullshit excuses.
My point here, if you get Hughes net satellite internet, do NOT let Vision Quest 2000 do the install. All you will get for your troubles, and there will be many, is excuses and bullshit. You will be told how you are "aligned" (LOL) to a low power satellite. Yes, the maximum signal will be about 80, with the NORM at about 60 or better. This is direct from tech support. The good folks at every level of tech support have told me many, many times that the ABSOLUTE minimum is 45. Not if Vision Quest does your install.
An example, on a crystal clear day, not a cloud as far as the eye can see, our signal was 34! No storms that day, nor for days before. As I said, when a squirrel farts, our signal goes to hell. Immediately.
Calls to tech support have been done professionally, and I get very good information from them. Thank you Hughes! Calls to the distributor, Perfect 10 have been handled with professional attitude as well.
Why pick on Vision Quest? First, they did the original install. They came back more than once to fix the problem. Our internet connection is still hit or miss, mostly miss. Never had this with either the old 4000 or the 6000. Another reason I am picking on them, they were to be here last Friday afternoon, we stayed home all day waiting on them. They did NOT show up. They did NOT even have the professional courtesy to call us to give any sort of excuse for not coming out. Got a call Monday morning, saying they would try to be out this afternoon. By rights, they should have been here yesterday morning with an apology for not showing up last week. No such deal from them. Highly un-professional behavior.
Bottom line, if you get Hughes net internet, which is very good when it does work, please don't let Vision Quest 2000 do ANY work on your system. Incompetent and un-professional is my experience with them. Oh, and if you do deal with them, don't say "crap" or you will be told to stop cussing at them. Not asked, mind you, TOLD. In your own house, with a system YOU paid for that needs work.
America, what a shit house we have today. It used to be that the customer was always right. Today, the customer is just the damned fool who bought the product or service. And our "leaders" still say we are the strongest, best country in the world? HOW?
Just my nickel's' worth today.

What the hell is happening?

Holy crap world!
I try to take a short vacation. End up in the bloody damned hospital for still unknown reasons and the world really goes to hell in a handbasket, FAST. Elements of my old Viet Nam unit, 5th Marine Regiment, are being accused of what can only be called war crimes. Shrub is still lying even more than usual. The donkey gang is as gutless as ever. (No doubt stabbing each other in the back in hopes they win at least one house in the November elections.) Never too early to outdo the competition. Cheney must be in his undisclosed location, not many "peeps" from him of late. Scooter is still awaiting trial. Rove appears to be off the hook for the Plame mess, for now at least. The wars are still not showing any positive signs for the old US of A. We just killed poor old Zarqawi. Osama is still a free man, or maybe just an illusion. Rummy is still the Secretary of Defense. Oh boy, Alberto is still the Attorney General.
Come to think of it, being "away" didn't make much difference. Still the same shit, different day. Unless you are a Palestinian, they lost all foreign aid apparently. See what a free, fair, democratic election gets you these days!
Oh joy! Our gutless Senate approved General Hayden as the new chief of the CIA. Bet he didn't have to resign his commission either. Nice move folks, let a military man be in charge of a civilian agency. Even better move was a "promotion" for the general. This is the guy who was overseeing the ILLEGAL NSA wiretaps on OUR phones and computers! What opposition party is there in Congress? It sure as hell isn't the damned Democants! They can't raise a voice in opposition to much of anything, unless it is one of their own getting busted by the FBI! Then they raise holy hell about police abuse! Crap, Jefferson was caught with the goods. Everyone in Louisiana knows that our politicians are dirty. Down here in Louisiana, politics is a contact sport. Only the roughest survive. Makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with Mr. Foster, our last governor. The man is NOT in jail. And to think he followed old Mr. Edwards. Guess he decided to not follow to closely. Jail isn't fun, or so I have heard.
Back to General Hayden for a minute. He is the new Ollie North I guess. More of the old, just following orders crap. The president and the attorney general said the NSA taps of phones and computers (aka spying on Americans in America) was legal and please could he do that. Well, hell yes. Salute and off he and his NSA spooks went. Spying on those sneaky, underhanded, evil Americans. And this is the guy the Senate gave the OK to be the new head of the CIA? Shit on a stick people. What will it take to wake this country up? Yes, sure, when they came for the Muslims I didn't care as I was not a Muslim...........Etc. Remember, when they come for you, there won't be anyone left to care. But then, if you are so brain dead as to let this continue, well, I won't care. Hell, I won't be by then anyway. That may have been uncalled for. I DO care. Deeply, passionately, about America. I care about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law. I don't give a shit about Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rice or any of the other criminal gang in power. I care very much about the abuse they have done to OUR country, to our laws, to our standing in the international community. They are running us down a rat hole, fast.
This most criminal administration in American history has done more harm to our country than any outside enemy ever could have hopped to have done. And we have let it happen. Oh, sure, the poll numbers for Bush are in the toilet now, but so what. The damage has been done, and nobody seems to have a way out. At least nobody in either political party. Opposition party? What opposition party? The donkey gang is just the other side of the elephant coin. As Justin Raimondo over at www.antiwar.com likes to call them, the War Party is in power and holds ALL seats in both houses of Congress.
Donkey and elephant; neither are house broken. Both just stomp through the flower beds and crap in our yards. A pox on both their houses and parties. Two sides of the same damned coin.
The killing of poor old Zarqawi. Big deal. It won't make any positive difference. It may even make things worse. Now he is a martyr. In some ways, that INCREASE his value. Good recruiting tool now. Some reports have suggested that al-Qaeda was tiring of his tactics. Kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of a loose cannon and get a new martyr. Wow, what a deal for them. Not so good news for us. Same shit, different day. Again.
My old regiment, what has happened to the Marines? Actually, I understand what happened. Honest. Just like Viet Nam, you cannot tell the "bad guys" from the "good guys" in Iraq or Afghanistan. That puts extra stress on the troops. It does NOT excuse the crimes being brought to light. Just that, may whatever god or gods exist help me, I understand what happened. No, I never participated in anything like the Haditha mess or My Lai either. Never knew of anything like that happening to the regiment during my tour in Viet Nam. The stress, frustration, and seeing your buddies getting shot and or killed, that I understand all too well. Add to that, you cannot tell who is just an innocent bystander and who is trying to kill you and your buddies. Makes life one hell of an ordeal. And this goes on, day after day, with no let up. Leave your base and take your chances. So, yes, I understand, but NO, I do NOT condone what they are being accused of. A sad day for the Marines. A sad day for America. May the gods help us all, if we allow this to become the norm.
Bush and his evil side kick Cheney, with help from the idiot Bolton, want to nuke Iran! They all keep saying ALL options are on the table. Crap! If we nuke Iran, America will be the biggest war criminal state in all of human history! Using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state! Forget your garden variety war crimes of killing unarmed civilians. That would be the biggest crime against humanity ever. Period. It would be something that centuries would be needed to live down, assuming there would be any people left on earth to live it down or remember the crime. Don't think dropping nukes on Iran might be the end of the world? Are you willing to make that bet? Looks like our fearful leader is willing and ready to do so. I don't think even the gods can bail us out of that bet if he places it "on the table" as it were. End of history indeed. Doubt my warnings all you want. Nobody would have ever thought that killing some archduke would ever send the entire world into war either, but it did. 1914, remember? Can't happen again? I don't ever wish to place that bet. More war, maybe an endless war, maybe the end of war, and human kind as well. Just some light ideas to think on this summer season.
Let me see, how many Democants want to be majority leader if they win the House this fall? How many of them are in the House today? I bet the numbers are equal. The election (do we still actually have them in America?) is still months away and these folks are counting their chickens, not just before they hatch, but before the eggs are even laid! Wow, and we thought politics was dull here in the old US of A! LOL! What a joke. If they fail to capture a majority in the House, then what? You got it, same shit, different day. Or, as they say in D.C., business as usual.
Poor Palestinians. They are foolish enough to hold free, fair elections, practice democracy, and what do they get? Cut off from all foreign aid. At least cut off from all revenue due them from Israel. Cut off from all American aid, about all aid from Europe as well. Ain't democracy grand? I guess democracy is supposed to be done like it is here in America. The election only is valid if the "correct" party wins it. Elect the wrong guy and look out, see Venezuela or Bolivia for examples. Poor Palestinians, guess they don't watch CNN or Faux "news" much. If they had done so, they would have seen what happens when you elect the "wrong" party or person. America approves of democracy only when the outcome is to our liking. Upset our fearful leader and all hell breaks lose on your country, even if you don't actually have a country, an occupied territory will do just fine for our wrath. America, land of the hypocrites. And to think we gave the world McDonald's, Coke, Pepsi, CNN, and this is the thanks we get! Get with the "program" Palestine, do as we tell you..............Or else! Not that it would matter. Neither the US of A nor Israel want any sort of peace with Palestine. If there was a real peace there, Israel would no longer be so damned important any more. Can't have that. Want to call me anti-Semitic? Go ahead. I know I am not. I might be anti-Zionist, but I do NOT hate Jews, nor any other "group". Well, I can't stand stupid, not liars very well, but hate takes way too much time and effort to do properly and is a waste of my time. Now, I might despise some things to hell and back, but I do not hate. So call me what you wish. I was a Marine and have been called everything under the sun and then some, including late for dinner. Hell, I joined the Marines in April of 1968, what else can you call me that I haven't already done so myself?
This afternoon, old Karl Rove is breathing a bit easy. No charges for him in the Plame affair. Yet............LOL
Poor old Scooter, still awaiting his trial for the Plame affair. Sorry Scoots, Cheney will dump you like a hot rock when the chips are down. Don't think so? Just wait till the trial starts. Make that a large tub of popcorn! (Smirk)
What another fine mess we have here.

Vacation is over, I'm back......Sort of

I has returned. More or less. The vacation wasn't. It sure wasn't the vacation I had planned on. The plan had been to take a few days or so away from the "news" and rest the old, gray thing that passes for a brain in my head. I think it is in my head.
It didn't work out. As the old saying about best laid plans and all. What can I expect? My plans weren't very well laid out, or so it seems.
Wound up, somehow that is still unclear to me, in the damned hospital. Why? Beats me. Even the doctors aren't quite sure on that.
Anyway, the vacation was not what was planned, and the bloody news has just kept getting worse. Even my old unit, the 5th Marine Regiment is in trouble now. I was with the 5th Marine Regiment in Viet Nam in 1970-71. Now they are being accused of what can only be called war crimes. Holy crap guys! What the hell happened? More on this and other news soon.
For now, the old man is back at the keyboard. If it matters to anyone. Even if it doesn't matter, I'm back anyway.