Dan Gould

Well its probably not the same company but a similar one since the FTC actually had a restraining order served and a receiver appointed. I doubt the receiver approved turning on the dialers. The real problem is that there are so many other companies doing similar things. But this one was especially bad - I found another article that mentioned that the reason they got away with it for a period of time was that the company providing the outbound dialing service used some sort of spoofing software so that caller ID would display a false number from the one that was actually dialing out (it was so bad that a single number used for that purpose was the subject of 11,000 FTC do-not-call violation complaints!), and the system dialed, sequentially, every number in a particular area code. Not only did it dial Schumer's cell phone, but it dialed 911 call centers, too. Worst of all, the president of the company that provided this service actually told clients not to worry about do-not-call violations, because they won't know where the call came from. That's a clown who belongs in jail. I don't know if the law provides for criminal prosecution or only civil but this is an asshat who predicated his business on violating the law with presumed impunity. Those was the other two companies that were named in the announcement.

I periodically get a recorded call on my cell phone, of all things, telling me the factory warranty on my '93 Miata (which I bought used many moons ago) is about to expire. ... I often wonder if this is just a shotgun operation designed to troll among the elderly. Not entirely sure if that's the point but it may be the result. In the brief time I was being "trained" you could tell that more elderly people will get a pre-recorded message and its almost as if they feel obligated to press 1 and wait for a live person. Most of the younger voices were the ones willing to wait on hold to say some variation of "screw you" (which I can't comprehend - I get a robo-call, I hang up FAST). But the guy who was training me explained that their motto is "Hang Up - Next" meaning, if they say anything other than the make and model of a vehicle, hang up and take the next call. The company pays no attention to Do Not Call, and they don't give anyone the opportunity to get their name removed because they are hanging up on anyone who doesn't give them the make and model of their car. Even people who responded to the question with "which vehicle?" got hung up on. I have to admit though the one time I laughed out loud was when the guy responded "don't hang up on me" just as the telemarketer was doing just that. But the scummyness of the company came through in the first part of the pitch - "We are the administrators of all warranties for (fill in the make)." Plus calling themselves by the generic "Warranty Service Center" and telling people that's the name of the company is flat out lying. There's no real selling involved - the top performers simply put in enough hours to find enough "lay-downs" to get the sales. And worst of all, you're told that once you get an affirmative answer to the question "which down payment - $450, $550 or $650 - do you think would be most comfortable for you today?" you put them on hold and a supervisor takes over to explain to them what their monthly payments would be. The problem is, that ain't a true close question, and none of your sales are sold unless the supervisor gets through his spiel without losing them. And that's before they take payment information and hope their credit card can hold the charge. So I saw three deals get to the supervisor, and none of them closed. I didn't mention it originally, but the company I worked so briefly for was Transcontinental Warranty. Today I swung by the NYT site and what do I find? According to the Times, a restraining order was filed and a receiver appointed to make sure that no money slips away or documents get destroyed. Sometimes the bad guys don't get away with it.

You know Al, aside from the fact that I gave my heart away a lot easier than you, that last section could describe the Red Sox to a tee right up until 2004. It could happen, so when it does I hope you enjoy it.

Up, as I have placed another 30 titles or so. Might be a few more but at this point I am not sure. Happy bidding!

Not unless I finally start booking the deals I thought I would back when I took the first Loan Mod job. My goal at this point is just to book as many commissions as possible and not spend any of it before the end of June. So July is the target, if we can spare the money then.

I can be philosophical when we get blown out. And I know damn well some games just aren't meant to be won. But, no one should be expected to be gracious after an offensive performance like that. Not to mention 9 Ks looking for the Sox and none for the Angels. Great umpiring as well as awesome clutch hitting in that one. And we all know that post-season berths can come down to one game - and if the Sox miss out by that one game, this will be exhibit A in "Why the Baseball Gods DON'T Actually Love The Red Sox".

I've seen stills.

Well, Dan still hasn't caught a break but hope springs eternal ... through my wife's partner I am going to be starting yet another telemarketing job. But I do believe the third one could be the charm. No more Loan Mods. No more competing with a half dozen other companies to squeeze $1500 out of somebody that barely has a pot to piss in. This is a business-to-business sales job, targeting the contracting industry. His company has a deal with about 40 insurance companies, including big ones like State Farm, wherein, when a claim comes in, rather than sending an adjuster out, they will send a "preferred contractor" out to put together an estimate. Apparently, 90% of the time, the first company out to the site gets the gig, so this is an opportunity for contractors to get in front of clients right out of the chute, and with the insurance company's blessing. No guarantee they get the job, the homeowner always has the option of choosing someone else, but if the odds are 90% in your favor, wouldn't you want to get those calls? At the same time, its not a matter of signing up as many contractors as possible, they will be very picky and limit the number in any single area and category. From today's conference call, its a lay-down sale because its pretty much a no-brainer, and the cost is minimal, too: $400 non-refundable application fee Annual renewal fee of $0 to $500, depending on the number of jobs the company got in the previous year 4% of each job is paid to the company. So, its a $400 sale pitched not to Mom and Pop outfits that are about to close up shop but to medium to large, established companies with substantial advertising budgets. And the commission is better than the current Loan Mod company was offering - they offer 20% on a $1500 deal, this commission starts at 31% on a $400 deal, and goes up to 44% when you reach ten deals. For the client, even one or two small jobs they wouldn't have gotten otherwise will cover their initial expense. The only thing that bothers me is that the company hasn't agreed to pay the salesman if they reject the application, even though they keep the fee. We're going to work on them to at least agree to a half-commission rate on those deals. And, its all done from home on Magic Jack and email. One company says no, you move on to their next biggest competitor until you find the one that says yes. Boss thinks we can cover the U.S. in 12-18 months. Works for me.

I meant to post about this when I watched last weekend. My feeling was that it was a good, but not extraordinary movie. The story arc was predictable, and Hollywood in its own way - he doesn't get the girl but he does execute that move off the top rope, whether it will kill him or not. A truly realistic look at the wrestling business would have been even more brutal, and could just as easily end in the morgue. At the same time, there are some very effective scenes and of course the acting was excellent. And as I said elsewhere, while its a shame Marisa Tomei waited til she hit 40 to take her clothes off on camera, I am nevertheless grateful that she finally did.

You are probably right even though they are missing Bedard (reportedly) and King Felix.

This is without a doubt the most infuriating fucking loss in a regular season game in about FOR-FUCKING EVER. In a one run, 12 inning loss to the fucking Angels, as a team they went THREE FOR FUCKING TWENTY TWO WITH RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION. And David Fucking Ortiz stranded TWELVE runners himself while going OH for SEVEN. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!

I'm sorry but this must be a mean, nasty trick being played on Free. And that's just not right.

There was never much in the way of a shape to begin with ... but the first set of photos show that she isn't the lean, boyish, no-hips or booty body type of her youth.

Don't tell Allen Lowe.

The same place I sold it.

At least you held on. I get the incredibly aggravating thrill of going to bed with a 4-0 lead to find out they lost 8-4, with the asshole they knocked around for four runs ending up with a complete game win. Jesus fucking Christ, what the fuck happened? Obviously number one is that Wakefield's impressive streak is done, finished, over. Back to league average Wake, hope-for-the-best Wake. And that means that Lester or Beckett HAS TO pick up their fucking game and get it going.

I bet you wouldn't buy Jon Voight's car, either.

Before I send us back into consideration of the important things in life, like the state of the Red Sox, how about a hand for Jayson Werth's stolen base spree last night, culminating in a steal of home on a lackadaisical throw back from the catcher? Not as exciting as Ellsbury, but certainly ballsy. Now, to get back to the Sox - seems to me they have an interesting decision coming up. Dice-K will probably have one more rehab start before he'd be reactivated. Masterson hasn't pitched as well as I thought he would as a starter and he was the one who took Dice-K's spot in the first place. Seems to me that the obvious play is to move Masterson back to the bullpen and send Hunter Jones back to Pawtucket. That leaves a bullpen of (in order of how sick they've pitched): Masterson Saito Delcarmen Okajima, Ramirez Papelbon (though he's had issues with baserunners, the results are hard to ignore) That's a tremendous bullpen, with Saito as the only real weak link, if current results continue. Even though there is only one lefty, the fact is that everyone except Masterson has shut-down numbers against lefties, so what does it matter? IMO, they should declare that Masterson is in the bullpen to stay, barring significant injuries in the rotation. And that is because both Michael Bowden and Clay Bucholz are tearing up AAA right now. When Dice-K went down, Masterson was the choice because he had been stretched out in March, plus Bowden and Bucholz had just OK starts at Pawtucket. But now both of them look locked in - Buchholz has gone over 20 innings without allowing a run, and Bowden has pitched even better than that. In short, if they have to make another move (like getting rid of Penny even if it comes before Smoltz is ready) there is no reason not to give the opportunity to one of the kids. And the great thing to me is that while Penny has an ERA around 7, I don't doubt there would be real interest in him if they made him available. There are plenty of would-be contenders who need pitching help. Penny looks healthy and is throwing 95, his results are just mixed. I think he even has three or four "quality" starts, he's just not really helping the team enough so that he should feel secure. I think he could be flipped for a bat pretty easily. Oh and did I mention that Junichi Tazawa now has an ERA under 3 as a starter at AA? He could be in the bullpen by July, too, which would be a helluva climb from the Japan Industrial league last year.

She's repulsive but its hard to disagree with this statement from the article: Does anyone remember the "Pop Up Video" comment about her outfit in that "Turn Back Time" video? Iirc, it said something like

I'm: Better than these Kardashians:

Sad report in the Globe about the catcher who got hit in the head by Jose Offerman when he went postal in that Independent league game. Guy's life was destroyed. Morehere.

A missed opportunity - when Roger repeated that "Andy misremembers" - "Roger, do you understand that isn't a credible response when Laura Pettitte confirms that the same time that it happened, Andy told her what you said about steroids/HGH? That isn't Andy misremembering a conversation ten years later, that's Andy telling his wife about the conversation, and her confirming it, contemporaneously." Of course, "contemporaneously" would be a tough word for Roger to understand but ...

Another lie - "(McNamee) made a buck". McNamee hasn't made any money from this situation, afaik. The money he'll make is when Clemens is in prison and then he decides to settle rather than contest McNamee's libel suit.

I find it remarkable that Roger Clemens is going on ESPN Radio today for an interview. After all of the legal setbacks and the reports about the medical evidence and losing his name off of the hospital wing and being told to stay away from other charitable functions, you'd think he'd be fully convinced to lay low and see what the Feds do. Instead he is giving an interview on the Mike & Mike show, his first sit down interview with anyone since Mike Wallace, afaik. And so much has come out since then, I can't believe he'd go on offense now. Hopefully there will be a video link to the segment, and hopefully the hosts won't go easy on him. What are the chances this is a one time thing or that its the start of a media blitz? Edit to add that he's on at 8:25, about ten minutes from now. Guess I'll be late for work again.

Bumble Bee Slim backed by Curtis Amy, Les McCann, Groove Holmes, Joe Pass.