The Dodge Retort

My long time friend Tom Abbott just participated in the Pacific Cup 2010 sailboat race from San Francisco to Hawaii. I posted videos he e-mailed to me below, but found another of sailing with relatives in SF Bay last October. It has more of Tom. That’s him at the helm.

The Hawaii race was a well-deserved break for Tom because he has a lot on his plate these days.

Tom comes from the early seventies generation of Boston cabbies (I was one, too). And he also drove in the Twin Cities and San Francisco. Today’s college grads can’t find good jobs, but trust me, it was worse in 1972-73, hence so many college educated hackney coachman back then. We all inspired the show, Taxi.

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In a world of shoddy customer service, it’s not hard to stand out when you’re really good. Amazon has been leader in great customer service, but two I want to cite today are American Express and GEICO.

GEICO's gecko rocks!

Amex as I like to call it forgave me for lots of interest recently on a large bill that was late and included a semester of private college tuition. So you know the bill was large! That said, Amex likes me because I usually pay my entire bill and pay it on time. I’ve been late on a number of occasions and Amex always comes through. This time, it ate a considerable amount of interest.

Amex: All is forgiven

Yes, I’ve switched to GEICO for auto insurance and its customer service has been fantastic. You press 4 for customer service and it comes on in an instant. And GEICO customer service resp extremely knowledgeable. GEICO also saved me $800 in annual premiums over my previous agent based insurance (One Beacon was the carrier) .

I have yet to test GEICO with  claim, but I fully expect it will be breeze (on that score, One Beacon was fine). I would expect nothing less from Warren Buffett.

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Here’s my most recent journalistic fruit salad, which I shared with my colleagues at Securities Industry News (now Securities Technology Monitor).

The accolade is the ASBPE’s (American Society of Business Publication Editors) 2009 Silver Award for News Analysis/Investigative and relates to the story I did on how Bernie Madoff’s aging technology cranked out phony statements, trade confirmations and other docs that convinced clients he was legit.

We all know now he was biggest thief of the decade.

STM editor-in-chief Tom Steinert-Threlkeld mailed the award to me after an American Society of Business Publishing Editors (ASBPE) dinner in New York last week. That was above and beyond because sometimes freelance writers (me) are forgotten in journalism’s beauty contests.

Tom or “TST” as he is known came up with the idea for the story late last summer and supported me all the way in two months of reporting. He did a brilliant job of editing the 4,000-word manuscript when I filed it in late October of last year.

Also on the plaque are SourceMedia Group editorial director John McCormick and the publication’s art director Fritz Laurore. Sourcemedia owns STM and before that, Securities Industry News.

Who what were the key sources in the story? First and foremost, former Madoff IT project manager Bob McMahon showed a lot of guts speaking out. Nader Ibrahim who worked on Madoff’s support desk was helpful, too. Author and journalist Erin Arvelund, who wrote Too Good to be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff, steered me in a couple of key directions.

And yes, a data forensics expert with exactly the same name as me – John Dodge of Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP, talked about how computers are searched for evidence.

The story goes to show that journalism is alive, well and necessary.

Here’s the blurb in the SourceMedia press release. Its stable of publications won a total of five ASBPE Awards (TST won “Regional Gold” for two of his columns).

“National Silver, Investigative Reporting, “How Bernie Made Basket Cases of

His Customers’ Accounts,” published Nov. 2, 2009. A six-week investigation by

technology journalist and contributing editor John Dodge on the information systems

and process Bernard Madoff used to fake “baskets” of trades put into his customers’

account statements in his multi-billion dollar fraud.”

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Will Rogers sent me this gem with the following explanation:

“Said to be an improvised Cuban mobile AA piece, assembled to protect the island after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Who says the Cubans have no imagination?  As one wag titled the picture, “Chevy Tough!!”  Another thought it was a prop from “Mad Max.” /MLG”

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The Boeing 787 Dreamliner steals the show at Farnborough International Air Show. This video offers glimpses of the 787′s interior and is narrated by Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. His full comments oddly headlined “Opportunities” can be found at his blog, Randy’s Journal.

Most notably, Boeing announced $13 billion in orders at Farnborough, but none were for 787s. [updated: the 787 drought ended this morning at Farnborough when Royal Jordanian Airlines ordered three 787s. Thanks to Flightblogger Jon Ostrower for the update.]

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Yes, these are real photos of a Boeing 787 001 over Mount Rainier next to Boeing 40 C bi-plane, reportedly the oldest Boeing aircraft still flying. The shots were taken last Saturday.

Test pilot Mike Carriker is at the throttle of the 787 Dreamliner (the one I witnessed first hand last Dec. 15 when the 787 and yes, this particular one, flew for the first time).

There’s four more of these remarkable photos at AirlineReporter blog, which offers up the explanation below:

“The Pemberton Family wants to thank the visionaries at The Boeing Company for their support in making some history this past Saturday. Boeing test pilot Mike Carriker flew Dreamliner serial number 001, the newest Boeing commercial aircraft, for some formation flyby shots with the Pemberton’s Model 40, the oldest flying Boeing commercial aircraft. The flights were just west of Mt. Rainier, Washington.

It is amazing to see Boeing’s oldest flying aircraft with their newest. A true enthusiast can’t help but get goosebumps seeing these photos!”

My advice to the pilot of the 40C? Don’t get too close.

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I love these two videos of what’s reputed to be the first 35 mm video ever made. Anyone familiar with San Francisco will recognize Market St. with the familiar and still-standing Ferry Building on Embarcadero in the distance as the camera-toting street car rolls north.

The silent film was originally thought to be from 1905, but according to David Kiehn at the Niles Esanay Museum, it was probably shot four days before The Great San Francisco Earthquake which struck on April 18, 1906. That’s from a 2006 post in the SFgate.com (San Francisco Chronicle). The post explains how Kiehn sleuthed the time frame and a bit about the Miles Brothers who shot it.

Here’s two versions, the first and shorter  of the pair is to the strains of Airs’ Moon Safari album’ (the cut is La Femme D’argent – woman of money) is my favorite, offering a light-hearted and lyrical look back in time. Perhaps, a bit haunting, too, assuming a catastrophe was about to  level much and kill many in the scene here. For film purists, the second and longer version is almost 14 minutes and silent.

Pedestrians crossed the wide thoroughfare at their own peril!

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What do you do when it’s an hour’s drive to the airport and your flight leaves in an hour? Pray your flight is delayed.

This morning, we set our alarms for 3:35 a.m. thinking we’d leave at 4 and arrive at the airport a solid hour before our 6:05 a.m. departure. Logan Airport in Boston couldn’t be that busy so early on a Sunday morning. An hour seemed like plenty of time to check luggage and drag our sorry butts through security.

But we were prepared for delays as a Northeaster with five inches of rain was pounding New York and New England.

As I dressed, I looked at the FIOS settop box and saw it was 4:59 a.m. The adrenalin hit me in an instant: we had not set our clocks forward an hour to account daylight savings time. The FIOS settop box had automatically sprung forward.

We hurriedly dressed and threw our luggage into the car.

As we drove through the wind and gloom, Ann checked with JetBlue a couple of times to learn if the flight was on time. Of course, it was. No way we would make it. We’d have to rebook and hang in the airport until our new flight left.

That wouldn’t be so hard.

We left the car at off-site parking and sped to the terminal. Whoops…in my haste to leave, I forgot my golf clubs.

Yeah right, Logan was deserted. NOT! Terminal C was jammed with long lines of travelers whose flights the day before were canceled due to the bad weather. I asked a JeBlue agent managing the lines if flight 449 to Fort Launderale had left and she guessed yes. After all, it was 6 a.m. and the door to plane was sure to be shut if it was on time.

The agent said get at the end of the line and rebook. “The line’s around the corner,” she said.

Around the corner! It stretched 200 yards into the narrow hallway leading to Terminal B. That’s after looping around in serpentine fashion in front of the ticket counters. My heart sank. Who knows how long it would be before we left? And we’d incur dumbass fees for rebooking the a flight we’d missed.

Our abilibi should JetBlue have any sympathy on our poor souls was that a flooded street delayed our departure when in truth, it was our addled minds. We’re not above groveling and pleading old age, decrepitude and whatever other nonsense we could trump up.

Actually, we were so absorbed in the Georgetown West Virginia basketball game for The Big East championship last night, we forgot about springing forward an hour. Our team Georgetown (our son goes there) lost by two in a nailbiter. It was an omen. We were coming up two points short on this flight.

Johnnie to the rescue.

“I’m going to go back to the counter to ask if 449 has really left,” I told Ann. I found another line agent. “I’ve been calling out the flight numbers,” she said defensely. I posed the simple question again and she asked if we had just gotten to the airport. I sheepingly answered in the affirmative.

She instructed me to get into a short line. I still had no idea if the plane had left.

First, I got into a line that wasn’t a line. Then, I  got into the correct line with about 4-5 parties ahead of me. Meanwhile, I called Ann who was still at the end of the longest line I have ever seen and said come to the counter. She trudged back with all the luggage.

Meanwhile, I grabbed the first line agent, who called the gate to see if we could still get on. She claimed she never heard us ask about flight 449 when we first entered the terminal. Ann now tells me I asked about the “6:05 a.m. to Fort Lauderdale” and not about 449.

In five minutes, we stood before a smiling counter agent who told us we’d make the original flight. A wave of relief came over us. We flew through security which was empty (the multitudes were getting rebooked at JetBlue), ran to an empty gate C36 and boarded.

All’s well that ends well. The first agent helped make it happen, but had we stood in that endless line, we would have needlessly missed our flight.

The flight didn’t leave for another 30 minutes as more bags and most assuredly ours were put on board.   We’re two hours into the flight now approaching Fort Lauderdale, our destination. Smooth, too, although bumpy on takeoff as the plane ascended to get above the still raging storm in Boston. Luck was with us this day.

Oh, don’t forget set your clocks forward an hour.

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I watched the President speak unscripted to House Republicans in a Baltimore hotel yesterday courtesy of JetBlue. The president’s appearance in the lion’s den was unprecedented and given what Mass. senator-elect Scott Brown has been doing lately, maybe, just maybe, Republican and Democrats can work together.

This nano-thaw in relations could lead to a ceasefire or better, a truce. It’s a start. After all, aren’t we all on the same side?

Obama was brilliant and talking candidly about about the animosity on both sides sows the seeds of mutual self-destruction. He had the courage to walk into the enemy camp and take question extemporaneously (apparently, the meeting was supposed to be behind close doors, but it wasn’t).

“We have have to be careful what we say about each other because it boxes us in. [We need] a tone of civility instead of slash and burn,” said the president.

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz asked why the healthcare reform debate was not broadcast on Cspan and why Obama hired lobbyists in his administration when he said he wouldn’t. I didn’t catch Obama’s answer, but he replied that the charge was not entirely true. That Chaffetz got to asked the question point blank was testiment to Obama’s deep desire for bipartisanship.

The Republicans asked the president to stop calling them “the party of no.”  Obama called on Republicans to stop calling his ideas “Bolshevik” and labeing him “a crazy guy who’s doing bad things for the country.” Obama also said the Republicans have substantive proposals and that he read them.

It was raw and all out on the table. Now what?

Were any minds changed? Will any Republicans occasionally vote with the president instead of hoping to freeze government until they have another shot in the midterms and 2012? I pray it be so.

As for Brown, I’ve have been pleasantly surprised. He has reached out to key Masschusetts Democrats because he knows he has to work with them. Casting himself as an independent, Brown is acting more like one now than he did in the campaign.

He has met with Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick. He even ate a little crow when Deval explained to Brown that his earlier remarks about the state not speeding Stimulus dollars fast enough were in error. Brown confessed to not knowing a couple of things.

Maybe it’s the altitude that’s getting to me given I’m on a TVed JetBlue flight to Florida, but I am hopeful and that Scott Brown’s election might be a turning point. I am as partisan as anyone and voted for his opponent Martha Coakley, but at the end of the day, I’d first and foremost like to see the country and Congress come together and get the nation’s work done.

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My good friend and high school classmate Gordie Stuart is  far to right of me, but I think his idea of putting Congress on notice cuts across party lines. His guest commentary suggests putting members of Congress on Social Security, 401ks, no pay when out of office and into the same healthcare system as other Americans.  Term limits, too. The official proposal is below his commentary. Let us know what you think and follow me on Twitter.

by Gordon Stuart

So many people have sent me the article below on “How to Fix Congress”, I feel compelled to seriously express my thoughts and gather yours.   I’m sure you’ve read the article too and I hope you respond. I don’t know who originally came up with the suggestions in the article, but, I do concur with most of them.  This email was forwarded to me as: “An idea whose time has come”.  In my opinion, it is beyond time.  Our Government’s spending is out of control, entitlements are destroying our country, we continue struggling with being the “world’s policeman” and we still concern ourselves about being “politically correct”, while our freedoms dwindle and handouts increase a little more each day.  What happened to Common Sense?  All this should have been nipped at the start and we should never have arrived at this point.  So, what about “fixing Congress”?

Well, there may someday be an elected Representative of the United States who will step up to the plate and initiate legislation along the lines suggested below.  However, I don’t hold much hope that will happen and I hold even less hope such legislation would ever pass unless there was some great incentive.  Maybe I am too cynical, but I think there is just too much greed and corruption among our elected Government officials to get this type of legislation passed without some incentive.

Some of you may respond by saying we can bring about these changes through our election process.  Certainly, one would hope that would be enough incentive.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t affected very much in the past and history repeats itself.  Whether we continue to elect the same old people like Frank Lautenberg in NJ or elect new people, we’ve honestly seen little change in the way our Government conducts itself.  All our elected officials always seem to fall into the “Washington Beltway Trap” shortly after being elected and common sense is put on the “back burner”.  Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent, there is probably only 1 or 2 of you who would disagree with that statement.

I listened to a person last week say our elected officials, government employees, Wall Street bankers and corporate CEO’s are responsible for our current fiscal crisis.  That is true, but he didn’t like it when I responded by saying: “in fact, we are all responsible”!  After all, we (the people) let it happen.  The proposed legislation in “How to Fix Congress” addresses nothing more than taxation without representation.  It doesn’t address military operations, corporate greed or even corruption within our government.  It just addresses taxation without representation and in fact, we are being taxed without representation.  What is worse: these are our “employees” whom we are allowing to dictate terms and conditions to us and we should do something about it or hold ourselves accountable.  If you disagree; stop reading right here.  If you agree: what do you think we should do?  My fiancée’s son has a bumper sticker that says: “STOP BITCHIN’, START REVOLUTION”.  I think that is a good solution!

I’m not proposing an outright revolution to overthrow our Government.  That would cause too much chaos and put us in even more trouble.  However, I would like to see a tax revolt because I think it is outrageous to allow our elected officials to enact laws that don’t apply to them and it is wrong to allow them to give themselves pay raises, lavish pension plans and premium health care while the “backbone” of working America paying for it all settles for something far less.  Furthermore, since they are “playing in a different stadium” they’ve had no incentive to improve “the turf” in ours.

To say we can bring these changes about through our election process is a joke!  We can’t wait for the election process and it isn’t effective correcting these issues anyway.  We may get one or two people to introduce such a bill.  However, without some “incentive” to get the other Congressmen and Senators to vote for it, the measure would never pass.  So, what would be enough incentive?  This may be naïve, but, I think if a large enough percentage of the population said: “I’ve had it” and threatened to refuse paying their taxes (unless the suggested, common sense measures are passed) it may work.

Our current population in the United States is a little over 300 million people.  If just 10-30 million people (less than 10% of our population) said: “I’m not paying my Federal Income Tax unless you pass these measures”, what would the government do?   Would they throw everybody in jail?  No, because there isn’t enough room.  Would they put liens on our property, garnish wages or put holds on our bank accounts?  I don’t think so!  Those actions would exacerbate the situation and cause even more revolt- possibly an outright revolution.  I think, under those pressured circumstances, our government officials would do what is right.  Few will “bite the hand that feeds them”.  They’d change things quickly and I’m willing to take that chance.

How about you?  What do you think?  I look forward to hearing your insightful response.  With best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010…