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AT&T has dirty business

iPod touch Fans forum

- 10 hours and 15 minutes ago

I just had a rather dirty business experience with AT&T. I sent a news tip to engadget in the hopes theyll publish my story (because I really want people to know of the kind of things being done here)

heres the email I sent them:

Quote: I'm not exactly this is the right place for this, but I've always liked this site as a general tech news site, and I really think this should be public knowledge at least some.

Ok so about two weeks ago my mom told me the sprinkler system at our house had stopped working all of a sudden. This was around the time we had our Comcast cable switched to AT&T. At the time I didnt care much about the sprinklers (I'm fifteen, I've got better things to worry about like school) So anyway the problem continued for weeks. We couldn't figure out the problem. There was some construction going on in our house on one of the bathrooms, so we figured they had turned off the plumbing for that. But then one of the workers came up to us and told us that the pipes were backing up when they tested the plumbing fixtures they were installing, and that we should get it looked at. Thats when we knew there was a problem. We called our sprinkler system's maintenance guys out to our house to look at the system. They looked at the electronic control box and at each of the individual sprinkler heads. They also checked the water at the tap on the side of our house and made sure the power to the electric box was fully connected. Everything appeared fine, but then one of the men decided to follow the power cables to our control box and see if there was a problem. He followed the cable not too far before he found that it was cut.

What had happened was the AT&T worker who installed our cable found the sprinkler cable when he was installing it. Our sprinkler system happens to use the exact same type of cable that Comcast uses to hook up their system. The worker had found the cable and cut off a ten foot long section, then re-buried the cable. This was to make sure that even if we decided to switch back to Comcast, we would be unable, because the Comcast lines already broken, but we wouldnt be able to tell because it was buried. The problem is, he mistakenly cut off a section of our sprinkler's cable, causing it to fail, causing us to investigate it.

we did manage to snap 6 or so pictures of it with a cellphone before the maintenance guys fixed it, including some really clear images that undoubtedly show the cable was cut on purpose, and if you're interested I can give you those pictures.

now I understand AT&T not wanting to lost business, but when they deliberately sabotage any rival companies who we might want to switch to, thats just really dirty business. On top of that, technically speaking, those cables are our property. that means that they vandalized and destroyed a customer's property (actually, who cares about us being customers - anyone's property!)

now I doubt we will be able to do much to the company directly, just want people out there to know what this company is willing to do to keep customers, and maybe why others might be having problems. (AT&T could get more customers by FIXING THEIR SERVICE, because since we switched to it theres been a lot of freezing tvs and our internet has a bad connection)

so thanks for just reading my story, if you want the pictures you can have them, if you dont even want the story, thats fine too. do what you wish, I'm just glad I can expose this kind of dirty business to a group of people who have an effect on the tech world. I know, its really rant-y but I would really hate for a well-respected company to be able to do this kind of thing to their customers and have no one know.

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Liddy, Pruden repeat debunked claim that Obama's birth certificate is fake

Media Matters for America

- 10 hours and 34 minutes ago

Citing a July 20 Israel Insider article which claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's birth certificate is a "crudely forged fake," G. Gordon Liddy falsely asserted on the August 26 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show: "[W]e still don't have a birth certificate for Obama. There are claims that he was actually born in Kenya." Liddy also claimed, "If it's so important an issue that the campaign, if they had a real birth certificate from Hawaii, the campaign would put it out, not rely on a phony thing Photoshopped by Daily Kos," and stated, "And as Wes Pruden, in today's edition of The Washington Times, he's the editor emeritus, puts it, you know, this is a story that could have long legs." Indeed, in his August 26 column, Pruden wrote that a "summer-long controversy continues about when and where the senator was actually born, and whether the circumstances of his birth could cloud his eligibility to serve" and falsely asserted that "[t]he Obama campaign has been reluctant to produce a birth certificate." In fact, contrary to Liddy and Pruden's false assertions, the Obama campaign, in addition to posting a copy of the birth certificate on the campaign website, reportedly provided the original to FactCheck.org, whose staff said in an August 21 article that they "have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate," and concluded that the document does, in fact, exist, and that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship."

As Media Matters documented, even the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, which had cited the Israel Insider's report that analysts determined that Obama's birth certificate is fake, has since reported in an August 23 article that "FactChecker.org [sic] says it obtained Obama's actual birth certificate and that the document was indeed real," and added, "A separate WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic."

From the August 26 edition of Radio America's The G. Gordon Liddy Show:

LIDDY: All right, ladies and gentlemen. There's a story in a publication called Israel Insider, and it addresses the birthplace, if you will, of Barack Obama. Now, what you have probably seen, on the Internet and places like that, is a certificate of "live birth," quote-unquote, issued by the state of Hawaii, giving, you know, the birth date of Barack Hussein Obama Jr. And Senior is listed as the father, and Ann Dunham as the mother, et cetera.

But the first thing you have to remember is this was released by the Daily Kos, which is a radical left blog. And the second thing is that it is not a birth certificate. A birth certificate, such as you and I and just about everybody else, has, is a certificate at the hospital where you're born, and it's issued, and it says, you know, who the father is and the mother is and so on. This is a document that is issued later by the state, claiming that an individual was born at such-and-such a place at such-and-such a time. And this has been -- the one that was released by Daily Kos shows clear signs of tampering, such as a mismatch in the RGB and error levels, visible indications of the previous location of the erased security border, easily detectable patterns of repeating flaws around the new security border, EXIF data that says the image was last saved with Photoshop CS3 for Macintosh, and finally a technician from Hawaii who confirms it just looks wrong. So, we still don't have a birth certificate for Obama.

There are claims that he was actually born in Kenya. I have no way of proving that or disproving that, but it would seem to me that it being so important -- I mean, because if he was born in Kenya and not in Hawaii, then he's not eligible to become president. If it's so important an issue that the campaign, if they had a real birth certificate from Hawaii, the campaign would put it out, not rely on a phony thing Photoshopped by Daily Kos, you know. Why? You have to ask yourself that question: why? And as Wes Pruden, in today's edition of The Washington Times, he's the editor emeritus, puts it, you know, this is a story that could have long legs. It's dynamite if it's true. And I don't know how many people are or are not working on the story, but as I said, it is dynamite.

From Pruden's August 26 Washington Times column:

The Democrats here are more than a little concerned about their man's slide in the polls; Gallup on Monday said the race is tied at 45-all. Even John McCain's faulty memory about his various houses and condos, so rich for the late-night comics, has not blunted what one senior Democrat calls "McCain's run of 12 unanswered points over the past fortnight."

The news may get worse. There's the story now afloat that an Obama half brother is living in grim poverty in Kenya, scratching out a bare living on a dollar a month while the senator lives in luxury on $5 million a year. Far worse, a summerlong controversy continues about when and where the senator was actually born, and whether the circumstances of his birth could cloud his eligibility to serve.

The Obama campaign has been reluctant to produce a birth certificate. This could be a story with legs, swift long legs to rival those of a Kenyan sprinter. The Clintons are surely trying to help sort this out.