Link here

 

Conservative Phone Company Exploits Wedge Issues for Profit

 

Company Attempts to Capitalize on Country's Culture Wars

 

By JAKE TAPPER and GEOFFREY BENNETT

 

June 7, 2005 ? The newest battle in the culture wars is being waged on the telephone lines. In a departure from the standard telemarketing calls aimed at selling long distance service, United American Technology has taken telemarketing to a whole new level.

 

The Oklahoma-based long distance carrier, which describes itself as a Christian conservative company, is seeking like-minded customers by bad-mouthing bigger rivals for their "sinful" behavior.

 

"Our base, which would be a conservative base, really does not like the same-sex marriage that has been pushed down our throat," UAT consultant Carl Thompson told ABC News.

 

UAT niche markets its service by railing against Internet pornography, homosexuality, and then criticizing competing phone companies it claims promote both.

 

Many major corporations ? ranging from huge hotel chains to telecommunications firms that carry cable television and Internet services ? have profited, in one form or another, from adult entertainment.

 

Likewise, many corporations have either contributed to politicians or organizations that support gay rights, or have implemented diversity programs. Both changes in corporate culture have rankled socially conservative organizations.

 

"Lots of marketers ? from these people to Pepsi ? are trying to create a reason to choose their commodity brand over another, and I guess the culture wars are as good a reason as any," said Bob Garfield, advertising critic for Advertising Age magazine.

 

Corporations are increasingly embracing political positions that cater to a specific clientele. The San Francisco-based Working Assets Long Distance, for instance, markets itself as a liberal long distance phone company and says it has raised over $47 million for progressive causes.

 

Other corporations change policies because they smell potential profits. Coors Brewing Company, once a major supporter of conservative causes, even went so far as to employ someone to market specifically to gay and lesbian customers. Her name: Mary Cheney, the daughter of the vice president.

 

But some say UAT takes its politics too far. New York City comedian Eugene Mirman was so astonished by a UAT call he received, he recorded it. Mirman believes he was contacted ? as something of a joke ? because he donated $51 to the 1996 presidential campaign of Republican Alan Keyes.

 

"I got a phone call," Mirman said. "It was a recording and it said: 'Hi, I'm the mother of three, and I don't support gay marriage. If you don't support gay marriage press one.' I have something hooked up to my phone to record phone calls, and so I scrambled and found it ? Every time they would call, I would record it because it was crazy."

 

In one of the "crazy" exchanges he recorded, the telemarketer starts her sales pitch by asking about Mirman's stance on same-sex marriage:

 

UAT TELEMARKETER: OK. Eugene, did you press 1 to oppose same sex marriages?

 

 

 

MIRMAN: Oh, I pressed it, yes.

 

UAT: OK, that's great to hear. Now are you against same-sex marriages?

 

 

 

MIRMAN:: Well I want to destroy it, yes.

 

 

 

UAT: OK, that's great to hear. And Eugene -

 

 

 

MIRMAN: With the fist of God, we will smash them!

 

 

 

UAT: Exactly. Uh, Mr. Mirman, our organization is dedicated to people such as yourself who want to stop same-sex marriages and to quit doing business with companies that promote and profit from the homosexual lifestyle.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: Some companies profit from homosexuality?

 

 

 

UAT: That's correct.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: By selling sex favors?

 

 

 

UAT: No. Such as AT&T, what they do ?

 

 

 

MIRMAN: AT&T sells sex favors?

 

 

 

UAT: No, no. What it is is they own the Hot Network, which is a hardcore pornography channel ? They also give millions of dollars to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance group.

 

 

 

(AT&T actually has sold its division that owned the Hot Network, but Thompson says that's immaterial since the company still makes money off phone sex calls.)

 

 

 

 

UAT: Porn Profiteers a Fair Target

 

 

Thompson says corporations profiting from pornography are a fair target for criticism.

 

 

 

"If big business wants to make money off of it ? and they make billions off of it ? we should be able to complain about what they're making money off of," he said. "So the way we've decided to do it is an aggressive, telemarketing program."

 

 

 

Thomson says the company, which has about 10 employees and approximately 20,000 subscribers, is signing up 2,000 new customers each month.

 

 

 

UAT also hopes to win clients who might oppose big long distance carriers that offer diversity seminars, as evidenced by another portion of the call Mirman recorded:

 

 

 

MIRMAN: So what about the others? What does Verizon do?

 

 

 

UAT: OK, Verizon. What they do is they train their employees to accept a gay and lesbian lifestyle.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: They try to turn their employees gay?!

 

 

 

UAT: No, no. They train their employees to accept it.

 

 

 

UAT also uses the proliferation of Internet pornography as another selling point to lure religious conservatives.

 

 

 

"Everything that comes on the super highway, that runs into your house, is carried by big business," said Thompson. "They're making millions and billions of dollars by sending this [pornography] into the homes. Most child molesters get caught up on these Internet sites."

 

In Mirman's taped phone call, the UAT telemarketer accused another phone company of "sponsoring" child pornography.

 

 

 

UAT: UAT, Mr. Mirman, is the only carrier that is taking an active stand against same-sex marriages and hardcore child pornography.

 

MIRMAN: I think all child pornography is hardcore ? It's all wrong. AT&T sponsors child pornography?

 

 

 

UAT: No, no. That's MCI.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: MCI sponsors hardcore child pornography?

 

 

 

UAT: Yes, they have a pedophile Web site for men who love boys. Uh, it's a Montreal-based Web site.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: Oh my God! Our Canadian pervert neighbors!

 

 

 

UAT: Mmm hmm.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: So MCI basically has a child pornography ring.

 

 

 

UAT: That's correct.

 

 

 

In response, MCI spokesman Peter Lucht issued a statement saying, "It is disappointing that this company would resort to spreading false statements to benefit its cause. One would hope that consumers would see right through them."

 

 

 

But it is the end of the taped telemarketing call that perhaps best summarizes how UAT, and companies with similar marketing ploys, are attempting to build a base.

 

 

 

MIRMAN: Basically God hates AT&T, MCI, and Verizon.

 

 

 

UAT: (pause) Yes. And, Mr. Mirman, do you make a lot of long distance calls or just a few every month?

 

 

 

None of the other major long distance companies would comment on their new conservative competition.

I'll probably start an ideological war but the same-sex marriage issue was shoved down our throats by conservatives... not liberals.

I know they don't represent the vast majority of Christians, but once again you have a company trumpeting how Christian it is while telling lies and half-truths in order to fan the flames of hate.

 

At this point, the answer to "What Would Jesus Do?" seems to be "whoop some ass on the people who spread this kind of bullshit in his name".

UAT: Yes, they have a pedophile Web site for men who love boys. Uh, it's a Montreal-based Web site.

 

MIRMAN: Oh my God! Our Canadian pervert neighbors!

This had me in stitches.

It's not that the extreme conservative movement exists that annoys me as much as they are given so much lip service by the media. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Any group that far to the extreme of their ideology is full of crap, whether conservative, liberal, or otherwise.

I can top that story.

 

TV Regularly Promotes 'Stretching Machines,' Surgery Techniques

 

 

Competition for jobs and marriage partners has sparked a national height craze in China that has people lining up to be surgically stretched or to purchase torture rack-like stretching machines, according to a Local 6 News report.

 

A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites admits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."

 

In recent months, advertisements on Chinese television are regularly promoting "stretching machines," which look like benches reminiscent of the medieval torture rack.

 

Users are supposed to strap themselves in by head and foot and turn a crank to extend the bench beneath them.

 

A voice-over on one of the TV advertisements claims that the "body stretch and exercise machine" can stretch human cartilage and "boost young people's height."

 

Also, a private hospital in Beijing has become famous for its height-extending practice which puts patients out of action for six months or more.

 

If it works, the procedure can extend the length of your bones by more than "15 percent," according to Dr Xia Hetao, who performs the surgery.

 

Xia uses an adaptation of a method originally developed in Russia more than a century ago.

 

Xia breaks his patient's legs, then attaches metal pins to the separated bones, which are held in place by metal frames around the patient's legs.

 

The patient then has to twist a knob daily to drag the ends of broken bone apart gradually, encouraging new bone to grow to bridge the gap as the fracture heals, resulting in longer bones, and a taller person, according to the report.

 

He insists that his procedure has a high rate of success. However, Xia said that there are other operators in China who botch the job.

 

As leg-lengthening becomes more popular, Xia is calling for official regulation of the practice.

 

China's Ministry of Health says it is very concerned about the trend.

 

One of Xia's patients, Wang Junhong, traveled thousands of miles from southern China to get her legs lengthened in Beijing.

 

She said she knows of doctors that offer the surgery near where she lives, but she doesn't trust them to get it right.

 

Competition for work and business success in China can pressure job seekers to take drastic action to increase their height.

 

Job advertisements often prominently list height requirements for potential candidates

 

The average Chinese woman is about 5 feet 2 inches tall and the average man about 5 feet 6 inches, according to the report.

 

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

Josh showed me something today that's got all of your stories beat.

 

Man With Chain Saw Allowed to Enter U.S.

 

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 5:10 PM EDT

The Associated Press

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

 

On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres.

 

Then they let him into the United States.

 

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

 

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

 

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?

 

Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.

 

Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method" to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country.

 

"Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."

 

Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."

 

Sgt. Gary Cameron of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would not comment on whether it was, in fact, blood on the chain saw.

 

On the same day Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to be sentenced on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill Fulton's son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August.

 

Mowat told police Despres had been bothering his father-in-law for the past month. When Mowat confronted him, Despres allegedly pulled a knife, pointed it at Mowat's chest and said he was "going to get you all."

 

Police believe the dispute between the neighbors boiled over in the early-morning hours of April 24, when Despres allegedly broke into Fulton's home and stabbed to death the musician and 70-year-old Veronica Decarie.

 

Fulton's daughter found her father's body two days later. His car was later found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.

 

After the bodies were found on the afternoon of April 26, police set up roadblocks and sent out a bulletin that identified Despres as a "person of interest" in the slayings, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

 

The bulletin caught the eye of a Quincy police dispatcher because it gave the suspect's Massachusetts driver's license number, missing a character. The dispatcher plugged in numbers and letters until she found a last known address for Despres in Mattapoisett. She alerted police in that town, and an officer quickly spotted Despres.

 

In state court the next day, Despres told a judge that he is affiliated with NASA and was on his way to a Marine Corps base in Kansas at the time of his arrest.

 

After the case was transferred to federal court, Despres' attorney, Michael Andrews, questioned whether his client is mentally competent.

 

Fulton's friends in Minto, a village of 2,700 people, told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal that he was a popular musician, a guitarist known as the "Chet Atkins of Minto" and a 2001 inductee in the Minto Country Music Wall of Fame.

You should make your custom title Chet Atkins Of Minto.

I'm not entirely sure anyone really even gets the idea behind my avatar and custom title NOW. I'm guessing not a lot of the kiddies here would know who Chet Atkins was, either.

I'm not entirely sure anyone really even gets the idea behind my avatar and custom title NOW. I'm guessing not a lot of the kiddies here would know who Chet Atkins was, either.

For all I know, he produced a diet book. Yes, I know that's incorrect.

Al, actually that sounds about right to me.

Chet Atkins

 

And for those curious, my avatar is Vicious from the popular anime Cowboy Bebop. Vicious is Spike Spiegel's (MiB's avatar) former partner in a crime syndicate known as the Red Dragons. They had a falling out that led to a blood feud in which Vicious believes he is the only person that can kill Spike. Vicious is a little less diplomatic than Spike as well as extremely cunning and ambitious. (paraphrased from Wikipedia.org)

 

Read between the lines.

So, you're saying Chet Atkins didn't create the Atkins' Diet?

I'm saying only I can kill MiB.

 

And I have every intention of doing so.

The only Chet Atkins I know is the famous guitar player.

Those Atkins boys sure don't like to give their women sugar, but they have no problems slipping them some meat.

 

Thought of it. Had to say it. Carry on.