For once, a service disruption didn’t disrupt me in the least. I use OpenDNS, so I was unaffected by this one.

AT&T Inc. customers in the Southeast United States were unable to connect to the Internet through their DSL service for several hours Monday night because of an equipment problem, a company spokesman said.

Michael Coe, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based telecommunications company, said the digital subscriber line service was restored about 10 p.m. CST. He said the outage affected customers in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“The root cause of the disruption is still being investigated but appears to be an equipment impairment,” Coe said in a statement.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter in the scheme of things, since I have been having issues with AT&T and their DSL for several days now. In fact, I have had more issues since BellSouth became the new AT&T than I had in the previous two years. I wonder how long it will be until they tell me I need new cables to the house?

Of course, I am not going to say I told you so, because then I would be talking to myself again.

I think it’s sad that a U.S. based food company posts higher profits when the value of the U.S. dollar is weaker.

H.J. Heinz Co (HNZ.N) posted a higher quarterly profit on Friday and said it expects full-year profits to be near the top of its forecast range, helped by new products, the weak dollar and stepped-up marketing.

Thanks to my creative and lovely wife and her new love of canning, we won’t be using nearly as many Heinz products this year.

Facing its second toy recall in two weeks, the CEO of Mattel Inc. insisted Tuesday that his company has “rigorous standards” and apologized for the global pullback of millions of toys.

The toys were manufactured in China.

The recall, which was announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, affects about 9.5 million toys in the United States, and 11 million in foreign countries.

It is the largest in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under scrutiny worldwide for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.

Too bad Mattel didn’t think about those “rigorous standards” before they decided to outsource everything to China. I don’t know about you, but I would be willing to pay a little more for toys if I knew, without a doubt, that (a) it was free of harmful materials and (b) made in the U.S.A.

Someone e-mailed me and sent a link to this article, which claims that Al Gore did not dine on “endangered” Chilean Sea Bass, so I thought I would take a moment and clarify things.

The initial report stated,

Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world’s most threatened fish species.

and this new report states,

…the fish enjoyed by the Gores were not endangered or illegally caught.

Rather, the restaurant later confirmed, they had come from one of the world’s few well-managed, sustainable populations of toothfish, and caught and documented in compliance with Marine Stewardship Council regulations.

The second report confirms the fact that Mr. Gore did indeed dine on toothfish (aka Chilean Sea Bass).

The second report tries to separate “well-managed, sustainable populations” of toothfish and the wild endangered ones. Thats asinine.

Think about it for a moment. The entire species is threatened, not just some wild branch in the family tree. Being “endangered” means it is in danger of extinction. Whether the toothfish comes from some well-managed farm or is found in the wild, it’s still the same species, and it’s still endangered.

I have never heard a more cockamamy comparison in my life.

Does eating a “farmed” endangered species save them from extinction the same way purchasing “carbon offsets” makes people more energy efficient?

So, to clarify things, Chilean Sea Bass is an endangered species, and it appears Al Gore did, in fact, dine on Chilean Sea Bass. It does not matter if the meal was farmed, or from the wild, and it doesn’t get much clearer than that.

A man with tuberculosis who fled from medical isolation at a hospital was found Tuesday off Interstate 30 near Little Rock, authorities said.

Pulaski County Sheriff’s spokesman John Rehrauer said Franklin Greenwood, 50, was being taken back to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital.

He could run, but he couldn’t hide from the DTS.

Seriously folks… What possesses a person, who has a highly contagious disease, to run rather than receive treatment and prevent the possible infection of others?

I sure wish people would actually do what they say they are going to do. Just once.

Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t support impeachment proceedings against President Bush, but Cindy Sheehan wants her to disregard her promise and do it anyway, or else she will run against her when election time rolls around. Will Nancy cave in to the threat or not?

Cindy Sheehan, the soldier’s mother who galvanized the anti-war movement, said Sunday that she plans to seek House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.

Sheehan said she will run against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That’s when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group’s war protest site near Bush’s Crawford ranch.

It just goes to show you that Nancy Pelosi, as much as I don’t like her, has much more integrity than Cindy Sheehan, who, if I remember correctly said she was dropping out of the spotlight. So much for promises kept.

By commuting Libby’s sentence and not issuing a full pardon, President Bush has failed to take responsibility for allowing the whole Plame kerfluffle to propagate in the first place.

The Bush administration knew Richard Armitage was the leaker. The Bush administration stood idly by and watched sheepishly as the only person who tried to defend the administration against Joseph Wilson’s original claims was brought down simply because he couldn’t keep track of who he spoke too, what he said, and when he said it.

Remember, Scooter Libby was not convicted for leaking information, he was convicted for making false statements and obstruction of justice. Obstructing the same justice that still hasn’t ponied up any charges against anyone related to this case because so far, there is no evidence that a crime was ever committed.

Scooter Libby was simply doing his job, advising people in the administration, and was made the scapegoat in a case where the only two guilty parties should have been Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame.

We keep hearing about jobs that Americans aren’t willing to do. What happens when our own President won’t stand up and do the job he’s supposed to do?

You can read more about the President’s order by visiting Kim Priestap at Wizbang or Vincent Ferrari at Insignificant Thoughts

Every time they announce another Democratic debate, a hairdresser receives his $400.

Rosie O’Donnell fulfilled her destiny today.

ABC has just announced that Rosie O’Donnell will not be back on “The View.”

Like all good bleeding heart liberals… When the battle got tough, she cut and run.

We’ll miss you Rosie. Really. We will.

In 2001, John Edwards said that Democrats would be “united with the President throughout this war on terrorism”.

Now, in 2007, he says,

“The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It’s a bumper sticker, not a plan,” Edwards said. “It has damaged our alliances and weakened our standing in the world.”

Leave it to the personal injury attorney to make reference to bumper stickers. I guess it’s only appropriate, when you’ve made your career out of chasing ambulances.

Just remember… Liberals are open minded, unless you disagree with them. ;)