Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Openly gay Republican congressman won’t run again

AP:

PHOENIX Nov 23, 2005 - Rep. Jim Kolbe, a leading proponent of free trade and the only openly gay Republican in Congress, announced Wednesday that he will not seek a 12th term next year. [...]

Kolbe often disagrees with his party on gay rights issues. He reluctantly acknowledged in 1996 that he is gay, beating to the punch a national gay magazine that planned to do an article on him after he voted against federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Kolbe is a strong proponent of free trade and a guest-worker program for immigrants. He is popular in his Tucson-area district, receiving 61 percent of the vote in 2004.

More Osama dead rumors

Last month it was rumored he got sick and died in Kandahar. This time it’s the earthquake in Pakistan:

Nevada Senator Harry Reid thinks Osama Bin Laden was killed in last month’s earthquake in Pakistan.

Speaking Wednesday on News 4’s Nevada News Makers, Reid says he was informed today that Bin Laden may have died in the October temblor.

“I heard today that he may have died in the earthquake that they had in Pakistan, seriously.” Reid says that if that is the case, “that’s good for the world.”

Lafave v Limon

Good Morning America just had a story that Debra Lafave, the Tampa, Florida teacher accused of having sex with a 14 year old student, will serve no jail time. I have no problem with her sentence. None. I don’t know the details but it is consistent with my call for a more rational sex offender policy and a more forgiving culture that has rehabilitation as a goal.

I am, however, outraged for a different reason.

You may recall that just yesterday I pointed to this story of Matthew R. Limon who, after spending four 5 1/2 years in jail for a consensual sex act - also with a 14 year old boy though not his student and only four years his junior - and after having his case reviewed by the Kansas Supreme Court which concluded that the state can’t punish underage sex more harshly if it involves gay people, TODAY GOES TO COURT TO ANSWER NEW CHARGES FOR THE SAME INCIDENT.

Lafave’s ex-husband is saying she would have gotten jail time if she were a man. Maybe so. It’s a hook the press seems to love. But if she were gay or lesbian they’d throw her in jail and toss away the key.

Find-A-Human (again)

Just in time for holiday billing woes, NPR’s Morning Edition had a feature this morning on Paul English‘s antidote to phone menu hell, Find-a-human:

I created the IVR Cheat Sheet to help you quickly get to a human when you are trying to call a company for service. (The term “IVR” stands for Interactive Voice Response, the fancy name for those annoying computers who answer most phones these days.) [...]

The original dozen or so entries came from me, and from a Jane Spencer article in the Wall Street Journal on 7/16/2003; the rest of these entries were added by other frustrated consumers from across the web.

You can add a cheat, “Please only add info for USA companies with over 1 million customers.” And don’t miss his phone page, a terrific resource.

A friend first told me about this last May. Today’s pointer comes via James Joyner.

UPDATE: One company, Angel.com, has posted its Top 5 Reasons NOT to Zero Out.

None too compelling. Paul responds that we should be given the choice to connect to a human when we want.

I have to add that I do like automated phone agents. When they work. Unfortunately, right now too often they don’t. I particularly loathe banks and credit card companies that make you enter in the entire account number in order to assist me better, and when I get to the real human the system leads to, the human asks for the number all over again!

If they want us to use them, they shouldn’t pull stunts like that!

Via Dan Gillmor.