CrankyDave

Any of you not familiar with all the pork that got piled on the Bacon Wrapped Bailout Bill must be in a cave. It’s bad enough we as citizens and taxpayers are having to pony up because of greedy companies with more money wrapped up in CDS than the total national debt. Now we’ve got greedy politicians porking up the bailout bill with nonsense.

I want names! That’s right, the name of each and every Senator and/or Representative that added the fat to the bill to the tune of $110B. You represent ME and every other taxpayer that voted you into office. I want to know exactly what you are representing for me. I want to know which of you added the fat in the way of earmarks to the bailout bill. I want to know which of you required a bribe in the way of those earmarks in order to vote in favor of the bill.

Transparency my ass! Stand and be counted for the fat you added.

The American citizen, the taxpayer, should be infuriated by the bailout bill just passed by congress. Think your representative can’t be bribed? Think your representative is most interested the economy when deciding on how to spend your tax dollars? Then you better think again.

It took $110B of earmarks to make a “bad” bill “good”. How is that? How does $2M in tax exemptions for wooden arrow manufacturers, producers, or importers, sponsored by the Oregon Senators, help the financial sector. How does that make the bailout bill better? How does $100M in tax breaks for race track owners strengthen our economy? How is $192M tax rebate for Puerto Rican and the Virgin Island Rum good for the troubled financial sector? How does extending a $19B tax break for companies such as Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co., United Technologies Corp., Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Harley-Davidson help our banks and homeowners facing foreclosure?

These are just some of the earmarks it took to convince your representatives to vote for the bailout bill. Just some of pork it took to make a “bad” bailout bill good enough for your Senators and Congressmen to vote in favor of. Each of you should visit Taxpayers for Common Sense and see some more of the heapings of pork that got piled on the bill in order for it to good enough for your representative to vote in favor of.

Happy with how your tax dollars are now going to be spent to bailout the financial sector? You shouldn’t be. You should be flat out pissed off at how your elected government officials, officials YOU voted for decided how to spend YOUR tax dollars.

I invite each of you to take a good look at how your representative voted on the Pork Laden Bailout Bill and ask those who voted in favor of the Bacon Wrapped Bailout Bill why.

Call them, write them, email them, and ask them how it is that $10M in benefits for bicycle commuters helps the credit market. How $148M in tariff relief on wool helps ease the credit market and struggling home owners. How in the world it is they could vote in favor of spending YOUR tax dollars only after all this pork was added but not before. These are your representatives. The people YOU elected to decide how to spend YOUR tax dollars. Take the time to let them know what you think.

Visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to find the websites of your representative and senator.

I hope the Taste of Westmont Comittee takes the time to read the post Fedakin wrote on the 2008 Taste of Westmont. Fey and his wife drive a couple of hours each year to visit us and attend the taste so take it heart Westmont.

First things first… The Cuban Pork sandwiches Feydakin pointed out were from Absolutely Delicious. Very appropriate company name given the sandwiches.

Having grown up in Westmont, and a long time resident, I really look forward to it every year. I’m saddened to say that overall, it’s gone downhill. My own personal opinion is that the “taste” part of it has been pushed aside. Don’t get me wrong. We had a nice time but it really could have, and should have been so much better.

I echo your suggestions for 2009…

Food

I’ve talked to a lot of the vendors that have been there over the years. Many simply hoped to break even. I knew after speaking to many last year, it was going to be slim pickings this year. Why in the word would the “TASTE” of Westmont drive food vendors away over a few hundred dollars? Wake up Westmont! Cutting the booth price in half would have cost you about $6K based on the numbers I heard. Even the KofC with their discounted (cough) price lost money last year from what I heard.

Now the set up… what a joke. For 2 years running you’ve created a nightmare by the vendor set up/arrangement. I can only speculate but I’m guessing it’s for safety concerns. I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was but they need to call a “mulligan” and start over.

Entertainment

Let’s start with Sunday first… For the first time in a long time I didn’t even bother to attend the Taste on Sunday. Firstly, there are only so many Italian Beef-Sausage Combo’s and Cuban Pork sandwiches I can eat over a three day period. So, if you missed the earlier comments about the food go back and reread them would you please. Second, yes, I’m well aware Muddy was a long time Westmont resident and am well aware of the history, dedications, etc. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the tribute to him, but when is enough, enough?

Scheduling… Ok… you bill Friday as the ATTACK OF THE KILLER TRIBUTE BANDS! The taste doesn’t start until 4 pm, is billed to go until 10:30 PM and you pack 4 bands into that time span. We got there at 4:20 and the majority of food vendors weren’t even set up. Whoopee. The place was almost empty. What a shame to have “wasted” that entertainment lineup.

You want to do the Muddy Waters tribute, fine. Kick off the Taste with that on Friday. There’s a really good start to the festival. Saturday would have been the perfect day for tribute bands. And for Sunday, how could American English not have been a great way to end the festival?

So Westmont, I hope you’ll take the time to take a serious look at what you want the “Taste of Westmont” to be. Because in my book you’ve taken the taste for it out of my mouth.

Did Coca Cola buy links?

Janeth over at WPW pointed to a post that seems to indicate that may be the case.

Last Thursday (July 3rd), Coca Cola Brazil launched the drink i9 - Hidrotonico, the Brazilian version of Powerade. As a part of the i9 marketing strategy in blogs & social media, Coca Cola handpicked 9 prominent bloggers, custom made their homepage and gifted them a fancy USB mini fridge with the new product to be tested – a reason to blog about.

The above quote is taken from the Trend Spotting Blog

Advertising or link buying?

Well if you take the “Googly” perspective on this, I think it’s safe to say the bloggers were “paid” for their participation and at least one of them linked directly without tagging the link “nofollow”. That seems meet their criteria for ling “buying/selling”. If you remember, towards the end of 2007, Google got rather aggressive when it came to “paid links” and dinged those who chose not to comply with their “request” on how to handle them.

There are those that will say there is no such thing as “bad” publicity. However, I see this as a “sticky wicket” for both Coca Cola and the “compensated” bloggers that’s yet to unfold. True, Coke has generated a buzz about their product launch and the hand picked bloggers have already received quite a bit of attention from the blogosphere. But will it come back to haunt them? Will there be a reputation backlash for both?

Dave

LOL! Who doesn’t need a bit of good luck now and then. Now, I don’t usually participate in memes but what can I say. I happen to like Genies. C’mon now… who didn’t watch I Dream of Jeannie

So for those of you who like Genies (or Jeannie if you prefer ) join in! Perhaps a bit of unexpected luck will fly your way. Here’s how it works…

Don’t be stingy, pass a bit-o-genie-goodness around!

And for my good friend Feydakin, may the Genie King AND the Genie Princess visit you!

Dave

Some of you already know I have a passion for gardening and cooking. It’s how I get away from the daily grind and I truly enjoy the time I spend in my gardens and kitchen. I am absolutely by no means a chef. I just love to cook.

A current thread at WPW titled Tomato World was spun off from another thread because the posts were just a bit off topic. Go figure. A forum for eBusiness experts isn’t exactly where you’d expect to find a thread about tomatoes but interestingly enough, it’s turned into a fun thread… for me anyway.

Tomato growing, cooking with tomatoes, tomato varieties even rooftop gardens for those without yard space but still want to grow tomatoes are a few of the comment topics thus far. Like tomatoes? Throw your 2 cents into the mix!

Here’s a quickie tip for those of you who like to make your own pasta… substitute tomato juice, especially that from your garden tomatoes, for 1/3 of the eggs. You’ll get lower fat pasta with a bit of a sweet tomato flavor.

As for me, need to go look after the tomato plants and the rest of my garden this morning.

Dave

I do love pickles! No Chicago hotdog would be complete without a dill pickle spear and a Bloody Mary would fall flat without a tasty dill pickle spear. I have to admit that even though I’m a gardener and grow my own cucumbers, not only for salads, but to make and can pickles, I can’t resist buying a big jar of those tasty buggers every once in awhile.

So once you’ve purloined the last crunchy piece of pickly goodness from the jar now what? Dump the pickle juice down the drain and use the jar for nuts, bolts, or root a cutting from that hanging ivy that has already reached the floor? NO! Don’t do that! Shame on you for even thinking about wasting all that pickly goodness.

There are lots of things you can do. Me… I like to take some of the cucumbers I grow, especially the early ones, and pack them back into the same jar/pickle juice and make more pickles! No reason to waste what made what made them pickles in the first place now is there? Wait a couple weeks and PRESTO! more pickles! For some other ideas, here’s a page I came across today with plenty more ideas on what to do with juice once the pickles are gone… Uses for the Juices

I can’t say I’m the biggest sweet pickle fan. I love the dill, garlic dill, and the hot garlic dills. But here’s a recipe for Refrigerator Sweet Pickles a dear family friend shared with me…

“Sweet Lyla Pickles”

In a 1/2 gallon jar with a tight (leak proof) lid combine the following…

-1 1/2 cups of water
-1 1/2 cups of vinegar
-1 1/2 cups of sugar
-1 1/2 tablespoons of Onion Flakes
-1/4 teaspoon of salt
-1/4 teaspoon of celery seed
-1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
-1/2 teaspoon of celery salt

Cover, and shake the jar until all the sugar dissolves. Fill the jar with sliced cucumbers and place in the refrigerator. Occasionally shake the jar. You’ll have sweet pickles in a few days.

I’ve also used this recipe to make sweet relish as well. Simply cut the recipe down (if you don’t want a half gallon of relish) and instead of slicing the cucumbers, dice them. I’ve also used zucchini instead of cucumbers and it came out great! If you like the “green color” add a drop of green food coloring.

Speaking of zucchini, here’s how I make zucchini burgers.

Zucchini fries anyone? Yep, got a fun and easy way to make those for all you BBQ’ers out there. Not only easy and fun… most tasty!

Dave

I found myself searching around… again… because of yet another discussion about reporting paid links to Google. I don’t know why I allow myself to get into these discussions… again… but I did. I also don’t know why I decided to search for “tattletale ethics” but I did and found an interesting article…

Tattletale Ethics

It starts off with a quote from the television show The Brady Bunch…

Cindy, you know by tattling on your friends, you’re really just tattling on yourself. By tattling on your friends, you’re just telling them that you’re a tattletale. Now is that the tale you want to tell?

Mike Brady

Interesting because the article focuses on the management aspect of tattling and why it’s frowned upon in the business world. In particular pointing out the example of Mr. Eric Mangini of the New York Jets “tattling” on Bill Belicheck of the New England Patriots for taping practices held by the Jets.

Isn’t this frowned upon practice exactly what Google is encouraging be done? I realize that the “tattler” is more or less anonymous, except to Google. If you harken back to your schoolyard days you’ll likely remember the kid labeled the tattletale. Yep, was probably one of the biggest trouble makers too. Had a target on their back didn’t they? Not only a target from all the kids but from the people they tattled to.

I’m not necessary against Googles stance on paid links. They’re welcome to do what they wish with them. But I do take issue with how they’re trying to combat them and them trying to create the “link police” in an effort to find them.

Seriously Google, do you really think that encouraging people to participate in practice that is frowned upon by people everywhere from the time they were a child as well as the world of business, shines a good light on you as the instigator? If you do, how long do you think that light will last?

Dave

Merchants Protecting Consumers from Credit Card Fraud

In 2006 consumers used their credit or debit cards to spend approximately $160 billion at fast food restaurants alone. That’s a lot of transactions. Total online sales were projected to reach more than $250 Billion in 2007. Credit card fraud amounts to billions of dollars a year. But who is it that is really looking out for you? Who is it that is really being proactive about protecting consumers from fraudulent use of their credit cards before it happens? It’s not your bank.

Sure, you can contest a charge you didn’t make and there are laws in place to help protect you from being obligated to repay those charges. But that’s all after the fact. After your bank has already approved the transaction. If you think it’s your bank that pays for those charges you’d be wrong. It’s the merchants and ultimately you, the consumer, through higher prices, not your bank who issued the approval for the charge in the first place.

When you apply for a credit card, you provide the issuing bank with a wealth of information. Personal and private information that identifies you and ties you to your credit card. Information your bank has at its finger tips. When you make a purchase online, you provide merchants with personal and private information. The same information you provided your bank. How much of that information does your bank verify before they issue an approval for your online credit card purchase? Very little.

When you make a purchase online, your bank verifies the card number, expiration date, and security code. That’s it. That’s all they look at before issuing an approval for a purchase. That and your available credit. But what about your address or zip code, they have that on file, do they even transmit the information for the merchant? Nope, they don’t even consider it when issuing an approval. Why? Good question to ask your bank. Ask them why it is they don’t bother to verify information they have right at their finger tips before they issue an approval and feel free to post their answers here. They ought to be “interesting” to say the least.

So who is it that verifies this information after your bank has already approved the transaction? After the amount of your online purchase has already been held against your credit or debit account by your bank? It’s the merchant. Ever had an online purchase declined because an address or zip code didn’t match yet still see the amount being held against your credit or debit account? That’s because your bank approved the purchase but the merchant, in an effort to protect you, as well as themselves, declined the purchase. Ever had a merchant call you to verify a purchase or address? That’s because the merchant is trying to protect you and them from a potentially fraudulent purchase after your bank has already approved it.

I invite any of you to ask your bank why? Why they do not verify the information that you provide when making an online purchase before they approve that purchase. Why they make it incumbent upon the merchant to verify information, information that they themselves provide, instead of verifying it themselves before they issue an approval and hold your money. Why reputable merchants are doing more to protect you from the potential misuse of your credit card and decline transactions than they are.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Dave

There’s no shortage of chatter when it comes to Google and their stance on “paid links”. They have made it clear that pages that contain “paid links”, which they’ve chosen not to define, must be identified for a machine, spider, and/or algorithm, or they will suffer if they do not tag those links with machine readable code. Specifically, rel=”nofollow”.

Failure to comply with their “request” may result in the “offender” having their toolbar PR reduced and Google has indeed threatened to “penalize” sites that don’t comply, by harming their rankings. The biggest problem I see with this is that it’s destined to fail.

It doesn’t matter why they’re trying to do this. Doesn’t matter what their true motives are. Doesn’t even matter if their right or not. What matters is how they are doing this and is why their stance destines them to failure.

Googles “job”, the very business model on which they are based, the business model upon which they derive all of their income boils down to something quite simple…

1. Gather data…
2. Interpret that data…
3. Produce “results” based upon that interpretation.

Not that difficult a concept.

I’m certainly not trying to slight Google or what they do but those 3 things are, very basically, what makes them what they are. Their ability to… gather, interpret, and produce, to the satisfaction of their users.

This is what their latest “revelation”, their latest addition to to their webmaster guidelines states…

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the tag
Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

Sorry Google, but this latest “edict” is destined to fail.

You’ve decided not to change the way you interpret the data you gather, and the results you deliver by that interpretation, but to try and forcibly change the data you gather to meet your means of interpretation.

How is you forcing the manipulation of data to meet your desired interpretation a good thing?

One additional thought. Doesn’t Yahoo and MSN support “nofollow”? If so, isn’t Google forcing people to prevent both Yahoo and MSN from following links to be compliant with Googles new guidelines?

Dave