Weblog Sin Pies

By Charley Daniels

A great lede from the “fair and balanced” network:

Fox News: Al Gore Obtains Advance Copy of ‘Sopranos’ Finale

Former Vice President Al Gore hasn’t stopped believing he can get special favors for being a political figure. The New York Times reports he got an advance copy of ‘The Sopranos’ finale from Brad Grey, the chairman of Paramount and executive producer of the show.

It’s so like those Democrats to use their political clout to get early peeks at TV shows that us red-blooded, rock-ribbed Republicans wait for like the rest of the people.

By Charley Daniels

The CompUSA story has a happy ending. But not because CompUSA is a decent company. Digg got hold of the original Lost Remote post, and you can guess what happened after that. Viva la revolution, y’all!

Hey, 10 years ago CompUSA wouldn’t have refunded the guy his money. But it turns out there is such a thing as bad publicity, and it works! Occasionally. Take the news yesterday that CBS is likely going to renew Jericho, a show that was basically dead in the water coming out of upfronts last month. The fans weren’t having that. They sent the network lots of nuts — thousands of pounds by many accounts — which on the surface seems completely idiotic, but there is a story behind the significance. I’m not going to tell that story, just trust me.

Anyway, you can imagine CBS’s nut storage facilities filled rather quickly, and the squirrels were getting to be a problem (CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler is allergic to squirrels). This last part may or may not be true.

The point is, the network caved, or is caving, sources say, and CompUSA righted one of its wrongs, all thanks to the online community. And maybe squirrels.

Speaking of:

By Charley Daniels

From Lost Remote comes word of awesome customer service by waste-of-space retailer CompUSA, which sold an empty box to an unfortunate customer and then told him it was on him for not inspecting the package before the purchase. Even after going up the chain of command, sending a note to CompUSA’s president and CEO, the customer got this response from one of the head guy’s underlings:

The return policy for all merchandise, as printed on your receipt and posted throughout the store, clearly stated ALL SALES FINAL…. if the camera you purchased was a clearance item, you should have inspected its content prior to purchase.

It was a liquidation sale, so there are no rules!

Robert was sold an empty box by some podunk online retailer, and that company sent him a new camera. Sure, it was a hassle for him, but not nearly as bad as being sold a $269 box and then having the company blame him for it. I’d give that company a shout-out if I could remember what it was. Maybe he’ll remind us in the comments section.

CompUSA is in trouble, not surprisingly, and awful customer service won’t help — especially if people start talking about it more. So here’s a little more publicity. After all, who needs companies like them?

By Charley Daniels

The results are the interesting part:

So far a majority of people like to see children publicly mess up. That’s what I voted for too, of course, but I figured I’d be in the minority. Maybe more than half of the people are like me after all. And if nothing else we like to see kids fail, so we at least have that in common.

By Charley Daniels

Liberal blogs, pundits, and talking heads, in cooperation with the recently formed Society for Preservation of Beach Boys Song Lyrics, are foaming at the mouth over Republican Senator John McCain’s parody of the Beach Boys song “Barbara Ann” (video after the jump), in which he turned the words of the song into “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” The impromptu performance came during a speaking engagement where McCain was asked by an audience member whether the U.S. should send Iran a message via air mail. Get it? “Air” mail? Obviously a lighthearted (if a little tasteless and, you know, idiotic) moment. So McCain responded in a similarly lighthearted (and, yes, a little tasteless and idiotic) way.

After the uproarious laughter subsided, McCain apparently launched into a serious answer about the complex political situation between Iran and the U.S. and a bunch of other politics-speak. So what’s the big deal?

Look, I’m no McCain enthusiast. I don’t agree with his ideology, his politics, or his choice of tie. If he wants to play no-rules street ball, I’ll put on my spiky fingerless gloves and take him on any day. But if politicians aren’t allowed to have a sense of humor in a situation that’s informal and lighthearted, maybe we should just skip to the part where robots take over, since we’re already at least a third of the way there.

The bottom line is, I’ve been listening to a lot of the Republican candidates (and potential candidates) for presidency, and I have to say, McCain’s joke isn’t even in the top 10 most idiotic things I’ve heard from that group. And most of the time they’re being serious. Don’t even get me started on the current Commander-in-Chief.

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