Ask-Steve.com

Sounds of a bone-rattling ride on a TriMet bus

After one too many times riding the #75 and feeling deaf and broken afterward, I decided to record what it sounds like on the bus with my iPhone. This is the raw audio. No amplification, modification or anything else. It's only 90 seconds long.

I bring you -- the music of TriMet. (And yes, it is just as deafening and teeth-rattlingly horrible as it sounds.)

AUDIO: TriMet Bus #75

Free rides from Zipcar and Whole Foods

I received the following from Zipcar via e-mail today and have to share:

need a ride home?

Thanksgiving is a time of plenty, but getting it all home can be plenty tough. Just a reminder that if you find yourself out at Whole Foods Fremont (3535 NE 15th Ave.) or Whole Foods Market Laurelhurst (2825 E Burnside St.) with more than you can carry, we'll be driving home any shopper who lives within a 2-mile radius of the store!

Look for us today (Tuesday) and Wednesday from 4-8pm.

See you at Whole Foods,

The team at Zipcar Portland

Tough times taking their toll?

We had dinner at one of our favorite spots in town tonight. There’s normally a considerable wait to get in – especially on a Friday night. If we can get in at all. Wait too late and they’ll tell you that they’re booked for the rest of the night.

Not tonight. There were two other couples waiting with us the few minutes before they opened, but in the hour or so we were there the place never filled up. In fact, it didn’t come close.

We enjoyed our meal and a couple drinks. When the check came, I noticed immediately that they had charged me $9.50 or my $6.50 beer. I pointed this out to the waiter and he immediately took the check away and corrected it. When he came back, I gave him cash with almost $20 change due back. A few minutes later he came back and left $9 on the table. After waiting a while, I stepped over to the register and caught his eye. I started to explain and he immediately went to the register and handed me correct change. He’s been there for years and has always been great, so I gave him the same 20 plus percent tip I usually do.

I’ve heard and read many times that tough times put people to the test. That petty crime goes up during recessions and more so during depressions. It seems to be a sad fact that folks who manage to stay honest when times are good are pushed over the edge when the economy tanks.

Of course I give this waiter the benefit of the doubt. Of course I want to think that he was just having an off night. But I’d also be crazy not to feel like I need to check the tab and change a little more closely from now on.

No wonder the GOP is falling apart

Referring to South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint:

The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own "brand," which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

First of all, those brand values are mutually exclusive. Unless the limited government is granting people the freedom to live within the government-enforced, religious-based values.

I'm sure the tens of thousands of recently married couples in California would love for the government to take a more limited role in their personal lives, rather than foisting their religious-based values on them to take away their freedom.

If the GOP wants to return to true conservatism, they should jettison the religious radicals who have hijacked the party and get back to limited government and fiscal conservatism. Their hypocritical holy wars are only going to run the party out of office and into the ground.

GOP senator: McCain betrayed Republican principles  |  CNN Politics

Conservative media can't stand by McCain

Saying the McCain campaign is on the ropes may be too generous an assessment at this point. Even the conservative media outlets are finding it difficult to ignore the fact that Senator McCain's briefly resuscitated run for the White House is simply indefensible. The poorly run campaign has gone from not-so-bad to far worse than most—including me—could have predicted.

From the Wall Street Journal—a publication that is traditionally both fiscally and socially conservative:

Some McCain campaign officials are becoming concerned about the hostility that attacks against Sen. Obama are whipping up among Republican supporters. During an internal conference call Thursday, campaign officials discussed how the tenor of the crowds has turned on the media and on Sen. Obama.

Someone yelled "Off with his head" at a rally Wednesday for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin in Pennsylvania. Later that day in Ohio, a man stood outside a rally holding a sign that said "Obama, Osama." At a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, someone in the crowd wore a T-shirt depicting Sen. Obama wearing a devil mask.

The Economist, fiscally conservative but more moderate socially, has shown good judgment from early on, more willing than it's U.S. counterparts to state the facts without fear of bullying verbal abuse by the GOP. In a September 4 article entitled The woman from nowhere: What Sarah Palin means:

Mr McCain has based his campaign on the idea that this is a dangerous world—and that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to deal with it. He has also acknowledged that his advanced age—he celebrated his 72nd birthday on August 29th—makes his choice of vice-president unusually important. Now he has chosen as his running mate, on the basis of the most cursory vetting, a first-term governor of Alaska.

Mr McCain had met Mrs Palin only once, for a 15-minute chat at the National Governors’ Association meeting, before summoning her to his ranch for her final interview. The New York Times claims that his team arrived in Alaska only on August 28th, a day before the announcement. As a result, his advisers seem to have been gobsmacked by the Palin show that is now playing on the national stage. She has links to the wacky Alaska Independence Party, which wants to secede from the Union. She is on record disagreeing with Mr McCain on global warming, among other issues. The contrast with Mr Obama’s choice of the highly experienced and much-vetted Joe Biden is striking.

These two articles say more than enough in making it clear that (I'll say it if no one else will in such plain terms) John McCain has just plain screwed up. But there is another out today from the normally mild-mannered Economist that sounds to me like the death knell for the McCain / Palin sideshow.

More evidence is surfacing that whole McCain-Palin crowds are increasingly comfortable calling Barack Obama a "terrorist" (not just a friend to a terrorist), "commie faggot" and similar. Look how many people repeat the theme, in these two videos (from Ohio and Pennsylvania).

The story links to two videos of McCain / Palin supporters that should be both embarrassing and alarming for any American. The story then concludes:

Add these two scenes, in your minds, to the racial slur and "kill him!" seen in Ft Meyers, Florida. Add this scene, in New Mexico, where John McCain asks who "the real Barack Obama" is and someone screams "terrorist!" One after the other after the other. Around the country. Boldly, stepping out to vent at a political rally in front of cameras, not being sought out in their communities.

Mr McCain and Mrs Palin are not playing with fire. They are handing out fire to drunken, angry crowds. If someone's house gets burned down they will point to the fire-safety pamphlet that was free for the taking at the entry to their rallies. (Mrs Palin: Sure, Mr Obama is not a terrorist but "This election is about the truthfulness and judgment needed in our next president.")  Would you accept that as a defence?

McCain Campaign Is at Odds Over Negative Attacks' Scope  | WSJ

The woman from nowhere | The Economist

McCain and Palin are not saying | The Economist

Phone book publishers aren't cool

Here we go again. Geoff K over at Our PDX Network posted today about the continuing scourge of telephone book spam.

I know that not everyone looks to the internet to get their information and directory services, and that there will always be people who prefer the ole book. But isn’t it time we changed it from something sent out to everyone, to something only delivered to people who REQUEST it? I’ve tried many times to opt out of getting phone books, but it doesn’t matter, they come whether you want them or not. The guys chucking phone books this morning weren’t looking at any list or checking which houses got them, they just chucked them, house after house not really caring about much (a side note, the book nearly took out one of our Halloween decorations…).

Not much more to say. These spambook publishers need to be stopped and held to account for their waste and litter.

More info on telephone directory waste

Qwest DEX telephone directories: 2,162 pages of waste

Ralph Stanley's radio ad supporting Obama in West Virginia

I'd like to say a very heartfelt thank you to Dave Allen for his post over at Pampelmoose. It may be the single most heartening thing I've read in a week at least.

Ralph Stanley is the last remaining survivor of the Stanley Brothers, and as such is one of the few remaining figures of the first generation of bluegrass musicians. He’s from the part of the mountains the Carter Family came from, and has had a recent career revival for his part in the Oh Brother Where Art Thou movie.

Listening to Ralph Stanley's iconic voice speaking in support of Barack Obama gives me tremendous encouragement and hope. I hope it does the same for you.

Ralph Stanley, a Radio Ad Supporting Obama in West Virginia - pampelmoose

Economist: World chooses Obama by a landslide

The Economist magazine has put together a brilliant application called the Global Electoral College. It asks, "What if the whole world could vote?"

People from around the world are casting there votes. The results as of this writing:

Obama: 13,491
McCain: 3,045

Global electoral votes for Obama: 8,039
Global electoral votes for McCain: 12

Let the right-wing ideologues spin this how they will. Their man is losing and losing big.

Click the image for a full-size version.

Global Electoral College: What if the whole world could vote? - Economist.com

samslist? Wal-Mart takes aim at craigslist

Wal-Mart continues it's relentless drive toward world domination — one unthinking, bargain-lusting, fellow shopper-trampling lemming at a time.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quietly launched a free Internet classified service, as the retailer goes beyond selling its own offerings on the Web to posting the products, pets and paraphernalia of virtually anyone who wants to list.

The Bentonville, Ark., retailer debuted Walmart.com Classifieds last week through classified Web site Oodle.com. The service, which the retailer described as a pilot test, carries 30 million items, including foreclosed homes, basset hounds, Madonna concert tickets and a 1981 Ford Firebird, as Wal-Mart tapped into Oodle Inc.'s menagerie of listings.

The service doesn't charge the seller or the buyer and is accessible through Walmart.com, the site the company uses to sell its own products. Wal-Mart said the new offering "further connects our community of 130 million customers who shop the Wal-Mart brand each week."

Let's see... They already let RV's park in their parking lots overnight. I'm guessing next they'll start building trailer parks around their stores. You'd then have everything you ever need in life within walking distance, just beyond the smiling faces greeting you at the doors of Wal-Mart. The smiling faces of Americans sitting there because companies like Wal-Mart put them out of business, then hired them at a crappy wage that wouldn't let them afford to retire.

Wal-Mart. Pay Less. Until We Put Our Last Competitor Under. (Then You're Screwed)

Wal-Mart Adds Free Online Classifieds  |  WSJ.com

MetroFi calls it quits - finally

I received the following from MetroFi via e-mail last Thursday:

Dear MetroFi User,

It is with regret that we notify you of our intentions to discontinue offering the MetroFi FREE and MetroFi Premium services in Portland. We are in the process of negotiating with a 3rd party network operator to keep the network in place, and during this time your services will not be affected. As soon as we know the outcome of these negotiations, we will provide you with further information.

Thank you,
The MetroFi Team

Is anyone surprised by this? I'm amazed they lasted as long as they did considering the service was more or less worthless from day one and never got better. I wrote in July of last year that "instead of free wi-fi, we got a dial-up speed advertising channel. And for many (most?) of us, those ads come crawling onto our screens at the price of a $119 Wireless Access Gateway."

Let's hope their negotiations fall through so we can get back to supporting the folks that have been doing it right all along: the Personal Telco Project. (And no, I still don't work for Personal Telco. I just love what they do and how they go about doing it.)