And yet another open letter to Click! Network management:

One of your people called me a few days ago to talk about DOCSIS 3.0

I'm sorry, I don't recall his name.

He was under the strong impression Comcast just rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 here in Tacoma in December 2009.

WRONG.

As I told the guy, Comcast rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 here in the Seattle Tacoma area slightly over a year ago - mid-December 2008. Check out this thread on dslreports.com and please note the posts' date: DOCSIS 3.0 available in Tacoma

Yes, that's right: Comcast rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 in Tacoma in mid-December, 2008. The first post in the thread is dated 12-19-2008.

And you guys thought the roll-out had just happened? Seriously? And according to what the guy told me, you're just now getting ready to ask the city council for money to build-out a DOCSIS 3.0 system?

This really disturbs me.

How on earth could you people have missed a major market event such as that?

The guy I talked to told me that the vast majority of your customers are at the Res 1 level, so that was another reason Click saw no real incentive to upgrade. Well duh! You ever suppose the reason all your customers are at Res 1 is because the other products are so inferior that anyone interested in real bandwidth and real value will go to Comcast?

Take another look:

Current Comcast prices:
1 Mbps down and 384 Kbps up - $24.95 per month
15 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up - $19.99 for 6 months then $42.95 per month
20 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up - $52.95 per month
30 Mbps down and 7 Mbps up - $62.95 per month
50 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up - $99.95 per month

Click packages:

3 Mbps down and 256 Kbps up - $32.95 per month - "Res 1"
10 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up - $42.95 per month - "Res 2"
15 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up - $62.95 per month - "Res 3"

With price and speed differences as shown above, what incentive exists for the discerning customer to choose Click? Hometown loyalty? You offer BAD deals. Not even mediocre, but actually bad. Click is a terrible value. A vastly inferior and over-priced product.

What you have remaining - the core Res 1 subscribers are obviously the people who don't care. And you still have no $24.95 price point package to compete with Comcast.

But by ignoring the market and allowing yourself to be non-competitive, you've driven away many other people who would otherwise subscribe.

I'm really concerned that your current management is running Click into the ground, and squandering the investment made by the people of this city.

Things must change, and quickly.

An open letter to Click! Network Management

Sirs:

Comcast started offering DOCSIS 3.0 connections here in the Seattle-Tacoma area over a year ago. At the time Comcast premiered it's product here, I called Click! customer service and was assured you were "working" on our DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade and that it would happen sometime relatively soon.

Well it's a year later, and we still have no upgrade. Comcast customers get twice (or more) the bandwidth we do.

Put this another way - say both Click! and Comcast were selling electricity. Click! sells 10 kWh for $62, but Comcast sells 30 kWh for the same price. That's what we have with internet bandwidth - Comcast gives their customers double or triple the bandwidth for the same exact price.

And this is a city owned utility! Why should Tacoma residents - who own Click! - pay more for their internet through their own utility? If anything, city utility prices should be less expensive!

Is Click consciously trying to commit business suicide? Are you completely unaware of what the competition currently offers, not to mention what they're planning? Check out this article. Comcast is planning to offer 250 Mbps service - in the next year or so! And then: read this more current article from CNET.

I would hate to see you guys lose all your customers because you can't offer competitive packages...

Current Comcast prices:

• 1 Mbps down and 384 Kbps up - $24.95 per month

• 15 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up - $19.99 for 6 months then $42.95 per month

• 20 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up - $52.95 per month

• 30 Mbps down and 7 Mbps up - $62.95 per month

• 50 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up - $99.95 per month

• 3 Mbps down and 256 Kbps up - $32.95 per month - "Res 1"

• 10 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up - $42.95 per month - "Res 2"

• 15 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up - $62.95 per month - "Res 3"

You don't even have any comparable products at the high and low ends of the range. Stupid, stupid, stupid! This is particularly so, when you could easily throw together a competitive low-end product (designed to woo people away from dial-up) without any network modifications at all!

I've got Res 3 from Advanced Stream (one of the Click! ISP's), but you don't even provide the advertised 15 Mbps down - mine tops out at just over 11 Mbps down and .76 Mbps up.

With Comcast for the same price, I could get nearly triple the downstream bandwidth and almost 10 times the upstream!

This must change.

I am a loyal Click! subscriber - I've been with Advanced Stream for almost eight years.

Yes, I am a very vocal critic. But it really pains me when I see Click! make continual marketing blunders like this - blunders that could spell the end for city owned internet service - and I feel compelled to speak out.

It makes me think perhaps TCI (which became ATT@Home, then later Comcast) knew what they were talking about when they predicted doom for the city of Tacoma if Click! came into being. Please don't let their prophesies come true.

If the competition is selling gas for 30 gallons for $62 and you price your gas at 15 gallons for the same price, how many customers are you going to have at your gas station? This is Marketing 101.

I believe competition is a good thing - it fosters lower prices - and that's one reason I want to see Click! continue. I really would hate to see us lose our hometown broadband service, but unless you can offer competitive prices and products, your days are numbered.

Please start offering competitive prices and speeds before all your customers jump ship!

Mike Pellegrini

Like I said in the last post, I don't usually read the Tacoma News Tribune. It's a scandal rag, owned by the McClatchy organization.

Last week, I couldn't help looking at their story on the Port of Tacoma - a copy was lying there on a table at work, open to the story, Port of Tacoma's Blair Development: Millions to nowhere. So reluctantly - knowing that with a title like that, it couldn't be a good story - I read on.

In the article, they tell the story of the development of the proposed new container terminal for NYK.

Briefly, in 2007, the Port of Tacoma signed a deal with the shipping line NYK, to provide them a new dedicated 168 acre container terminal in Tacoma, located on the tip of the Blair Peninsula. Integral to building the new terminal was relocating an existing terminal, Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE), and the demolition of existing buildings, as well as the cleanup of some toxic waste sites.

Because the Port didn't own all the property necessary for the project, it spent some $146 million on property acquisition and demolition.

In 2007 when the deal with NYK was inked, the economy was going great guns. All the projections - which were accepted pretty much universally - held that Chinese imports would explode in the coming years, with cargo growth rates reaching as much as 25% a year. The big fear, up and down the West Coast, was that we would not have enough dock space or the infrastructure available to handle the glut of Chinese cargo coming in.

I don't generally read the Tacoma News Tribune. It's a McClatchy "newspaper" - and I use that term loosely. McClatchy rags all seem to tout the McClatchy line - they're anti-labor, right-wing, rags with a very specific, narrow agenda. I guess you could say they're the print equivalent of Fox News.

When McClatchy bought the TNT from the Baker family years ago, one of the first things they did was engineer the breaking of the newspaper's union - pretty much just as they've done at most all the other McClatchy rags. That kinda set the tone for everything else.

I stopped reading the TNT - cancelled my subscription - when they came out with a story about longshore workers in Tacoma, about the longshore casual selection process. The story was quite biased and the editorial that followed was a sniveling, whiny piece of drivel - motivated by what was obviously the fact that the editor's kid must not have gotten a casual card and the editor was pissed.

When you intimately know a subject - I am a longshoreman in Tacoma - then it's easy to separate fact from fiction. The story about ILWU Local 23 was severely biased. And if the TNT promotes lies about that, then I have to figure the rest of their coverage is similarly biased.

So like I said, I quit subscribing.

I did pick up an occasional Sunday paper - mostly for the ads. And I continued to read the online version - for the local news.

Then a few months ago, the paper published yet another whiny, anti-labor editorial that was blatantly untrue and biased - and since then, I quit reading the online version.

Editor's note: We came within about an inch of this actually happening. Let's not forget!

We’re lucky to have secured a pre-release excerpt from the new Time Magazine issue set to be on newsstands the week of December 21, 2009 – Time’s Person of the Year edition.

2009 Person of the Year

Selecting the Person of The Year is always a tough call, but given the recent political developments in the United States and the world generally, this year was somewhat easier and we were unanimous in picking George W, Bush as our 2009 Person of the Year.

It’s easily demonstratable that George W, Bush has made life much safer for God fearing Christians the world over, and on that basis alone, our choice for Person of the Year was easy.

In the turmoil following the terrorist bombing of the 2008 Democratic National Convention – which precipitated the loss of all the top Democratic Party leadership including nominee Senator Barack Obama – George W. Bush boldly took charge, suspending the presidential elections, declaring martial law.

By immediately rounding up all the godless heathen terrorists – Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, homosexuals, anarchists, liberals and the like – the United States is now finally enjoying the peace and safety we deserve.

I was saddened to hear of the death of Farrah Fawcett. She was a really classy, beautiful and talented lady.

Conversely, on hearing Michael Jackson died at about the same time, I think I felt relief. My reaction was along the lines of, thank god, another psycho pedophile has been taken out of action.

When Farrah Fawcett debuted on TV, a lot of people dismissed her as just another pretty face - one of the "Charlie's Angels." It was hard to draw a different conclusion back then - face it - Charlie's Angels was the Baywatch of the mid-70's. The whole premise of the show was to put beautiful women in improbably situations to showcase their good looks. Not much plot. Terrible writing and acting. But great looking babes. It's a TV show formula that's been proven to work, over and over.

Reinforcing that no-talent/beautiful airhead impression was the iconic poster she did - and the hysteria about her trademark hair.

But then to the amazement of everyone, she left the show after only a year.

Sirs:

I'm a regular KPIG listener. I live in Tacoma, WA, and listen to the internet stream. I've been a regular listener pretty much since KPIG went live online. In the 70's, I lived in the Santa Cruz area and was a big fan of KFAT.

I'd like to register a protest concerning Mapleton's decision to do away with live DJ's at KPIG on the overnight shift.

KPIG is the last of what sadly is a dying breed - a radio station run by actual human beings, rather than programmed by computer-generated playlists with voice-over's from talent located on the East Coast or wherever.

The reason KPIG has been so successful is that it fills a unique niche - there really aren't any other stations where the DJ's actually choose much of what gets played. This is the last living remnant of "Free-Form FM" radio, a style popularized in the 60's and 70's which has since faded.

I particularly like the fact that the DJ's often play a lot of cross-genre music, not always sticking to a pure Americana format. Perhaps Laura Ellen deliberately designed the Americana genre loose to accommodate DJ choices? If so, that was a brilliant stroke.

But the balance of radio is a ClearChannel wasteland.

It seems the majority of radio today is mainly of the "satellite radio," variety - which is sanitized, homogenized, filtered, and re-packaged - to the point where every station, regardless of genre, sounds almost completely the same. All playing the same 40 songs (of whatever genre) over and over and over and over...

I abhor that kind of radio. I refuse to listen.

If you do away with live DJ's, then you've destroyed the one element that makes KPIG unique. KPIG would become just another radio station. It would lose that quirky, eccentric, unpredictable goodness that makes KPIG what it is.

I am aware of the realities of running a business. Perhaps you could cut executive/clerical/administrative staff, instead? Have everyone in management tighten their belts?

Or, another possibility might be offering a live, CD quality stream on a subscription basis. NOT Real Player. If that venture failed in the past, it was because of the bloatware/spyware/malware that Real builds into all their products - I refuse to install any Real product on all of my computers. The period when the internet stream was offered only on Real was the only time I have stopped listening to KPIG.

But surely there are other stream-casters that you could work with? Put up a CD quality stream with a company other than Real and I'll buy a monthly subscription - and I'm sure many others will as well.

Thanks for bringing KPIG to the world. Please don't tear down what Laura built!

Sincerely,

Mike Pellegrini
Tacoma, WA

He who burns brightest burns quickest.

Chris Lapenski died in a motorcycle accident on the morning of Monday, August 13.

He was 36 years old, a longshoreman, riding his Suzuki Hayabusa – the fastest production bike in the world, capable of speeds close to 200 MPH.

He was on his way to work at TOTE that morning, and according to reports, might have been racing another bike (the other rider denies this) at speeds around one hundred miles an hour. Supposedly, the other bike briefly lost control swerving into his path, which in turn caused Chris to lose control. He came off the bike and impacted a wooden post.

This is a tragic loss.

Chris lived more in his 36 years than most people will ever live in double or even triple that period of time.

I worked with Chris at Evergreen for the last seven or so years. Chris was a good friend. I’m really going to miss him.

Chris was so vibrantly alive, I’m having problems accepting that I’ll never see him again. It’s hard to believe that he won’t come bursting into the room in a just a few minutes, wide-eyed, with some new story to tell.

He really was a great storyteller. He must be particularly upset that he won’t be able to tell the story of his last ride – I know he’d make the story a good one. “Man, you gotta hear this…”

Everything he did was larger than life. He was the consummate sportsman. He took no small bites.

Chris knew more about the Evergreen terminal’s operation than just about anyone else. He was an expert at any and every job on the terminal. When you had a problem with something on the terminal, Chris was the person you went to for a solution.

Chris occasionally displayed what some interpreted as arrogance and impatience, but the truth of the matter was that he was smarter and quicker and often more knowledgeable than most all of those around him. Even so, he was always eager to share his knowledge with anyone who asked.

Chris lived and breathed his Hayabusa. His cycle magazines are lying all around the office here. In his off moments while working, he’d almost always be on some website or internet forum dedicated to Haybusas. He’d always be calling you over to look at some new video or web page about a Hayabusa.

No one wants to die, but I’m sure if Chris had been offered a chance to pick the manner of his own departure, it would have come down pretty much as it did – doing something he truly loved.

It’ll never be the same here at Evergreen without him. His loss leaves a giant hole in all our lives. We’ll all miss him terribly.

My condolences to his family.

Our prayers are with you Chris.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, America was reborn today, when Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th president.

After eight years of disgrace and shame, Obama’s election and inauguration rings in a new era for the United States. An era of hope, and of pride in our country.

Those qualities have been absent from our vocabularies for quite some time.

Since its inception in 1776, the ideals of America have shone forth like a beacon all across the world: freedom and equality; Liberty and justice for all; the land of the free and the home of the brave. Lofty ideals, those.

But these ideals were buried in a shameful, disgraceful, degrading time, where under George Bush, America became the world’s bully – invading a sovereign nation – Iraq – for no just reason or provocation; they were buried by George Bush manufacturing his phony “War On Terror” which was designed solely to expand and solidify his power base; they were buried when George Bush moved America closer and closer to becoming a police state, where we were tricked into giving up freedoms in the name of security; they were buried when George Bush tried and nearly succeeded in setting up an imperial presidency, where the president and his cronies were above the law of the land; they were buried when under George Bush, big business was turned loose to rape the environment and pillage the citizenry – all but destroying the US and world economies.

George Bush trashed it all.

But finally, the tide is turning.

It really kills me how Bush has been touting his record in the last week or so, listing as one of his major accomplishments that since 9/11, there have been no further foreign terrorist attacks on US soil.

With his approval rating running at a meager 22% - the lowest rating in history for a sitting president, I guess Bush feels like he has to try and clear his name. But his arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Let’s take a quick look backwards and examine the validity of Bush’s claims.

Okay, Bill Clinton served from 1993 till 2001. There was one actual foreign terrorist attack on the US during Clinton’s presidency – the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center where six people were killed.

However, since the attack took place only a little over one month from the time Clinton took office, it’s kind of hard to lay the blame on his administration.

Okay, so who was the slacker president that let this 1993 bombing happen? Why it was daddy Bush, that’s who. George H.W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993.

Looking back from 1993, we find that, well – there really aren’t any other attacks by foreign terrorists on American soil.

Well, we did it. Barack Obama got elected. Now the fun begins.

The stench of George Bush – America’s worst president ever – will linger for years and years. It’s hard to even begin to count the ways George Bush has screwed up the United States and the world.

Where do you begin? Our economy is in ruins, and the whole country is falling apart at the seams, with the world economy trailing behind us like a drunken sailor, bobbing and weaving, about to pass out. Then we’ve got wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a trillion dollar debt, the loss of many of our civil liberties in the name of freedom – and that’s just the beginning.

After eight years of a Bush republican, Neo-Con feeding frenzy – where Bush’s buddies spent day and night gorging themselves on the spoils of our labor, things are kind of rough. Bush and his buddies have raped and pillaged their way through much of our children’s inheritance. All that’s left are the smoking ruins.

I really don’t envy Obama – he’s coming into a pretty hopeless situation.

But at least I am heartened by the fact that I believe Obama is better qualified to turn the situation around than anyone else I can think of. To the extent anyone can, Obama has the best chance.

And more importantly, we’re not continuing to dig ourselves any deeper.

If John McCain had been elected, it just would have been a third term for Bush – no difference at all. That would have been a fate worse than death.

By electing Obama, we’ve prevented that – prevented further damage from being done.

President – Barack Obama

US Congressional District 6 – Norm Dicks

Washington State Governor – Christine Gregoire

Washington State Measures

Initiative 985 - This measure would open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all traffic during specified hours, require traffic light synchronization, increase roadside assistance funding, and dedicate certain taxes, fines, tolls and other revenues to traffic-flow purposes

Yes

Initiative 1000 - This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician.

Yes

Initiative 1029 - This measure would require long-term care workers to be certified as home care aides based on an examination, with exceptions; increase training and criminal background check requirements; and establish disciplinary standards and procedures.

Yes

It seems like 99% of all the politicians from all the different parties are cut from the same mold. They all have slightly different messages and slants left or right, but basically it’s all the same. A politician is a politician is a politician.

Barack Obama defies these stereotypes.

An early opponent of the war in Iraq, Obama had the courage to speak out and voice his opposition, even though at the time – because of the hysteria Bush had drummed up, reminiscent of the Joe McCarthy era – it was considered un-patriotic to oppose the war.

That really was a courageous act. Obama has maintained that position – that the Iraq war is wrong and that we must get our troops out – consistently since the war started.

The war in Iraq is one of the biggest problems we now face.

Obama has promised to get our troops out – and for that reason alone, I would vote for him. McCain’s “we’ll keep the troops there for 100 years or as long as it takes” is just completely intolerable.

But there are other reasons I support Obama, as well.

John McCain has an extremely impressive record – war hero, POW, statesman – he has it all. Twenty years in the US Senate. He’s traveled extensively around the world, getting close-up views of all the trouble spots. He’s on a first name basis with world leaders and other key people everywhere around the globe. He really and truly knows his stuff.

Four years ago when the presidential face-off was between George Bush and John Kerry, I found myself wishing McCain had run instead, because I would have almost preferred him over Kerry.

At that time, McCain was a centrist. He was a true maverick, disagreeing with George Bush and his party on key issues such as the use of torture and on tax cuts and other important issues.

But no more.

Since that time, McCain has undergone a metamorphosis – as he tried to mold himself into what he or the republican party saw as a contender for the 2008 presidential race.

He’s moved a good ways farther to the right. He’s become a more doctrinaire republican, embracing many of the same right-wing ideas and values he used to oppose.

Pictured at right, Dino "Italian Stallion" Rossi – the BIAW Candidate for Washington Governor, with his head up his ass, as usual.

After losing a tight race for Governor in 2004, Dino Rossi is back again this year, facing off against incumbent Christine Gregoire.

Rossi’s main distinguishment in this campaign is that he seems to blame everyone else for the economic mess the country is in – he blames Christine Gregoire, and he even blames his own party – which he conveniently distances himself from, by proclaiming himself the “GOP” candidate (hoping that people will think that’s different than a “republican.” ).

Rossi has proposed no new plans to help get the state out of the various messes we’re in, he’s just spent all of his time blaming others, in attack ad after attack ad. Nasty, viscous stuff, mostly full of lies and innuendo. These ads make the 2004 “Swift Boat” ads look like fluff in comparison.

And this coming after he kicked off his campaign by claiming sour grapes for Seattleites having “stolen” the last election.