a while back I remarked about how Cingular sucks... and I was just complaining about their lack of service at the time... but this fifth installment of Messages From Mississippi puts Cingular and Bell SOuth and all the cellular services into a whole new light... let Tim tell it like it is...

It's going to piss you off like it did me.

You know how most people will tell you that the affected area's biggest immediate problem was communication, meaning the lack thereof.

I was recently afforded the opportunity to "acquire" some inside information about Cingular's Hattiesburg, Mississippi tower location.

From reputable inside tech sources I have learned that the tower received no wind or water damage. The equipment and the building itself received no damage.

So why isn't the tower operational so that millions of people might use that equipment to relay situational, need, or God help them, emergency you might ask?

The lack of simple electricity.

"Oh wait a minute Tim, half of the state of Mississippi is still without power!"

Yes, that's true, BUT, half the state doesn't have access to industrial sized generator sets sittiing on flatbeds outside of Atlanta, Georgia with the ever familiar Cingular "X" logo emblazoned on the sides of them - last used in Alabama and Georgia and Florida after hurricane Ivan for the same exact reason.

Here, let me say that again....

Yes, that's true, BUT, half the state doesn't have access to industrial sized generator sets sittiing on flatbeds outside of Atlanta, Georgia with the ever familiar Cingular "X" logo emblazoned on the sides of them - last used in Alabama and Georgia and Florida after hurricane Ivan for the same exact reason.

Are you pissed yet?

Okay, now for the butt clencher, you knew there'd be one, didn't you?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the phone companies aren't killing themselves to get those communications back up.

It's much cheaper at the moment to allow the public to depend on the pitiful excuse that remains of the public phone system, the state and local radio systems.

They would much rather us depend on the military and its communications systems and hey, those ham radio guys always show up and work for free!

Why should we (the cellular phone companies) expend undue energy and expense when it'll wait a while?

I mean what the hey, we've already received this months checks from all those people. What are they going to do about it? Switch carriers? Hahahaha! Not this month anyway!

No, we cell phone carriers will just wait around while other people do the hardest of the cleanup, moving debris from around our tower areas and roads and highways leading to those sites, so that next month we get to play hero on white stallions and ride in to reinitiate communications.

That way it will be the least expensive cost factors possible.

Maybe a few people will switch to another carrier, but that's ok, because the ones switching from the others to us will cancel each other out, and we won't be out a dime on that stupid old hurricane.

*shrug*

Let the survivors be in the dark for awihile, maybe they will learn to appreciate us! *yawn*

"Now run along, I need to get back to more important things, like my playstation......"

Grrrrrrrr......

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

a few resourceful guys can keep a few buildings alive with power and communication in downtown New Orleans all through the hurricane and flood, but the entire combined conglomerate of the cellular telephone companies simply waited while people starved in shacks, while families hoping for a signal on their cell phone that might save their lives...

wait...

rescue workers, fire fighters, police, civilians desperate for organization that only some means of communication can provide...

wait...

are the profits from Mississippi not enough to justify the same sort of effort that the companies put out last year in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama?...

who was on duty?...

who was in charge?...

why were the generators not moved to where they would do the most good as quickly as possible?...

half of Mississippi still has no power... and it may take months to get the infrastructure of power lines up and running again... and it may take months to get the infrastructure of telephone lines up and running again...

but cell phone towers only needed generators to bring the single most important element into the what may turn out to be the worst natural disaster in the history of this country...

and the generators sat on their trucks outside Atlanta (and wherever else they were stored for just such an emergency)...

the cellular companies owe us an explanation...

and the government, what a waste of money and energy...

obviously there are incompetents in charge of the most important services necessary in any disaster... whether they were callous bureaucrats, deliberate bigots, careless incompetents, or confused people, they did not get the job done... they did not do their jobs when it mattered most...

and most of them make more than $100,000 a year...

not to mention to government and corporate jets, cars, meal and travel expenses, and tax write-offs... even those who do not abuse the perks of their positions live a lifestyle of the rich and famous...

and who pays for it?...

you do...

I do...

just like we pay for the foreign oil and gas (and big corporations just get bigger, more powerful, and richer)...

just like we pay for the corrupt governments in other countries...

just like we pay hundreds of billions of dollars (can you really imagine how much money that is?... break it down... how many meals?... how many rent payments?... how many doctor visits for you and your kids?... how many hot dogs or burgers or boxes of breakfast cereal that much money could buy?... probably not in our wildest dreams) to spend years taking apart and rebuilding other countries under the guise of protecting ourselves from terrorists...

well who's protecting us from the incompetence and corruption on our soil?...

who is protecting us from the embezzelment and theft commonly called pork barrel politics in our country?...

who is protecting us from the disaster of services that fail when needed most right here in our own back yards?...

and like an iceberg, this latest failure is just what we can see... projects that get too big to be covered up by pretty speeches and the all-encompassing viel of "national security"...

can we trust our government?...

can we believe that the 99% of government projects and services are more effective and less of a failure than the few we see?...

sometimes I wish they would just give us the drugs so we don't know what's going on...

but then the billions Slipped out of our pockets and into the insatiable pipeline of the so-called "war on drugs" could not be justified...

and if they just dropped the bomb and got it all overwith, they wouldn't be able to make billions building new bombs, keeping us so afraid of everything that we are afraid to question just what they are doing with our trillions of tax dollars each year...

but that is the game... and the incompetence and government's failure to protect us just adds to the paranoia and consipracy theories (will be be told to sit curled up under school desks soon?) and acceptance of giving up more rights so the government can protect us all the more...

but who protects us from government?...

enough...

somebody say something...

read the next installment of Messages from Mississippi



this weekend week the past two weeks was my attempt to support The Red Cross by partricipating in Blogging for Relief... the first entries inspired by this effort and the events in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina can be found here:

and you noticed missing numbers, of course you did, you're no fools... the missing numbers are the following three entries now dedicated to deliverance (from evil, madness, dirty drawers, and many other things) and respectfully dubbed:

because they were mostly guest entries to pass along email from a friend who witnessed Mississippi first hand cuz he lives there... bless him and his family, in fact, do it yourself... find someone touched by the events of the past week and share some love... and then go tell Michael and Tim and our own DLand Michael something good J

You can go into Walmart anywhere in the country, log onto any walmart website, even call an 800 number and either post a message to loved ones or search for messages from loved ones. Anyone can use it.

It is available at any Wal-Mart Store, SAM'S CLUB, Neighborhood Market, or Distribution Center via the hiring center kiosks, connection center kiosks, gift registry, and all Wal-Mart websites.

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)