mike’s blog - a glimpse into a brilliant mind

Today, January 2nd 2009, I read the headline on Drudge that Israel is set to launch the Gaza ground war tonight.

My first true thought surprised me. After wondering what it is really like there and how terrible it is to live in those conditions and the long history of this conflict I snapped.

Who Gives a Rip Anymore!

I must admit I am conflicted with this thought because I am a person who would rather see peace and harmony everywhere than death and destruction any place.

Allow me to vent …

I am a US citizen, in my mid 50s, and have been hearing about this off and on war and peace with Israel and its neighbors for over 40 years. Well, enough is enough! I am tired of hearing about it.

If either side had a true set of balls this whole thing would have been over decades ago.

Israel has gotten a ton of tax dollars from us and I’ll wager the other side has gotten a few thousand pounds of our tax dollars as well.

Every president of the US is involved in the “Israeli Peace Process” and for what? Does their involvement ever accomplish anything more than brief political brownie points for those involved in negotiations and an even briefer cease fire with the warring factions? Well, not that I can see.

So bite the bullet you guys. Either kiss and make up for good and for ever and give each other an old fashioned reach-around or finish the other side off.

I don’t even care who wins anymore, if I ever did.

Let’s face it Israel, who in their right mind ever thought any good would ever come from kicking people out of their lands for the use of another people, and ones they don’t particularly like too much?

Any thinking person would know there would be never ending war in such a place.

Never ending wars in a region, however, allow that region to be controlled and we all know What They Want and Why They Want It and Who Wants It, don’t we?

A new never ending war has most probably begun some place near by, Israel, so take notice. Maybe you’re not needed anymore by the Who.

Peace is always better than war.

… end of vent

This just came out from the Texas Attorney General’s Office:

Broadway Photo, Starlight Camera & Video cited for deceiving purchasers

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today (Nov. 25, 2008) charged two online digital camera and electronics retailers with conducting an unlawful bait-and-switch sales scheme. Today’s enforcement action seeks restitution for Texans who suffered financially because of the defendants’ unlawful conduct.

According to state investigators, Broadway Photo, L.L.C. and Starlight Camera & Video Inc., both of Brooklyn, N.Y., attempted to attract customers by offering the lowest retail prices on price-comparison Web sites. Once customers selected merchandise and made credit card purchases via the defendants’ Web sites, customers were notified that their orders had been processed. Despite the order-processing notice, customers were subsequently asked to call a specified telephone number to confirm their orders.

However, rather than use the calls to confirm customers orders, the defendants instead initiated aggressive, high-pressure sales pitches promoting over-priced accessories, including memory cards and batteries. The defendants’ telemarketers insisted these upgraded accessories were needed in order for the customers’ confirmed merchandise to function normally.

When customers refused these offers, the defendants told the customers the confirmed merchandise was substandard and lacked warranties. The defendants’ telemarketers encouraged customers to purchase different, more expensive products. If customers refused, the defendants canceled the orders, claiming the products were indefinitely back-ordered. When the defendants actually did ship orders, customers who intended to purchase new merchandise often received used or refurbished products.

The Office of the Attorney General is seeking injunctions halting this conduct and civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act

Just in time for the holidays! You too can be scammed, ripped off, have your payment and banking information compromised and probably your ID stolen by an interesting batch of related sites, owned by the same people and/or companies!

The scam: In a nutshell, you place your order and they get your Name, Address, Phone, Email and Payment Info. 2-3 days later they send an email requesting you to call them to ‘verify’ your order. You are put through a hard sell sales pitch; buy batteries, memory cards, etc. Finally they drop the bomb, the item you ordered is from Japan, all documentation, warranty is in Japaneese. You cancel your order.

It all started while looking for a deal on a Canon G10, a digital camera. A quick search on google.com lead me to EVERYPRICE.COM where they listed the camera I wanted on sale for only $401.00 - a pretty good deal. The merchant? Broadway Photo. Now I know, many of you who have ever shopped online for electronics and/or digital cameras have already heard of BROADWAYPHOTO.COM and probably have your own tale of woe in dealing with these scammers.

In a few days I got an email asking me to call to verify my order. I was upsold on batteries and memory cards I did not want or need. I was then told the camera was in Japaneese and canceled the order.

I did another google search for Broadway Photo complaints and read a dozen or so experiences that were identical except for products. My curiostity was up and the hunt was on …

http://www.google.com/search?q=broadwayphoto.com+complaints

First I did a whois search for BROADWAYPHOTO.COM - whois keeps records of who owns domain names with contact information

Here are the results:

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: SHE Advertising

OK, this tells me that the people who run BROADWAYPHOTO.COM do not want anyone to be able to find out who they are, but who is SHE Advertising?

Another google search: “Registered through: SHE Advertising”
The results page shocked me, a list of whois information excerpts with a whole list of camera websites!

REGALCAMERA.COM
BROADWAYPHOTO.COM
AMPHOTOWORLD.COM
DBUYS.COM
MSCHW.COM
CENTRALDIGITAL.COM
IBUYPLASMA.COM

So it seems that SHE Advertising owns and runs a whole bunch of similar websites.

Are there complaints about these sites too I asked myself … well, no surprise here, yes there are, all outline the same scam, more or less.

OK, who is SHE Advertising?

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: SHE Advertising
Domain Name: SHEADVERTISING.COM

Domain servers in listed order:
NS5.BLUELINEHOSTING.COM
NS6.BLUELINEHOSTING.COM

Ah, the same DomainsByProxy as BROADWAYPHOTO.COM

OK, what is DomainsByProxy.com?
It is a service that hides your whois information that, by law, is required to be available.

And SHE Advertising’s hosting company is BLUELINEHOSTING.COM?

Registrant:
BlueLine Hosting

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: BLUELINEHOSTING.COM

Registrant:
BlueLine Hosting

2745 Strickland Ave.
Brooklyn, New York 11234
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: BLUELINEHOSTING.COM
Created on: 31-Jul-03
Expires on: 31-Jul-09
Last Updated on: 11-Jun-08

Administrative Contact:
Hosting, BlueLine dov@dovgenut.com
2745 Strickland Ave.
Brooklyn, New York 11234

Another Brooklyn. NY address

OK, who’s dov@dovgenut.com ???

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: SHE Advertising
Domain Name: DOVGENUT.COM

So let’s go back and look at the other domains Registered through: SHE Advertising

REGALCAMERA.COM | Domains By Proxy, Inc.
AMPHOTOWORLD.COM | Domains By Proxy, Inc.
DBUYS.COM | Domains By Proxy, Inc.

I am sensing a pattern here, let’s take a look at their websites and contact information:

BROADWAYPHOTO.COM | 800-687-1740 | 718-338-3029 - Brooklyn NY
REGALCAMERA.COM | 1-800-823-0982 | 718-421-4632 - Brooklyn NY
AMPHOTOWORLD.COM | 800-709-4491 | 718-338-2950 - Brooklyn NY
DBUYS.COM | 877.993.2897 | 2931 Avenue S Brooklyn, NY 11229
IBUYPLASMA.COM | 800.886.8575 | 2931 Avenue S Brooklyn, NY 11229
CENTRALDIGITAL.COM | 800.896.4661 | 2931 Avenue S Brooklyn, NY 11229
PRESTIGECAMERA.COM | 800-432-2180 | 718-208-2939 | 315 East 89th St Brooklyn, NY 11236
MSCHW.COM Site under construction with “coming soon” message - hmmm, but they already have complaints …

BINGO! They’re all in Brooklyn, NY, all registered by SHE Advertising, have similar or the same addresses.

Now one domain name was not registered with domainsbyproxy.com, and that is MSCHW.COM. Their whois information revealed

Registrant:
Schwartz
1264 East 31 street
brooklyn, New York 11210
United States

Registered through: SHE Advertising
Domain Name: MSCHW.COM
Created on: 13-Jun-07
Expires on: 13-Jun-09
Last Updated on: 23-Jun-08

Administrative Contact:
Schwartz, Marvin jack@mistriel.com
1264 East 31 street
brooklyn, New York 11210
United States
646-667-4421

Hmmm, another Brooklyn address, a contact name but someone else’s email address … I beginning to feel like I’m in the middle of an episode of some crime show …OK, who is mistriel.com?

Registrant:
Jack Mistriel
144-48 69th Road
Flushing, New York 11367
United States

Registered through: SHE Advertising
Domain Name: MISTRIEL.COM

Hmmm, my curioisity really piqued now, who is securepaynet.net? They sell domain names, and whos logo is at the top of their page? SHE Advertising!

A Whois search revealed this contact information …

SECUREPAYNET.NET Wild West Domains, Inc. | 14455 N Hayden Rd #219 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 | 4806242500

Hayden Rd? Scottsdale, AZ??? They are literaly right down the street from Domains By Proxy!!!

The Wild West Domains, Inc. website is hosted on SECURESERVER.NET

Who is SECURESERVER.NET? They’re owned by Wild West Domains

OK, so we have found out the SHE Advertising owns a bunch of websites that have a long history of pulling the same scam.
SHE Advertising also owns or controls MSCHW.COM and MISTRIEL.COM and SECUREPAYNET.NET (which shows Wild West Domains, Inc. as the owner but, remember, it flys the SHE Advertising logo …

A visit to SHEAdvertising.com reveals no contact information, only a form to send them an email.

SHEAdvertising.com also had a link to the company that built their website … SURFLINEDATA.COM … another whois search … Registered through: SHE Advertising at DomainsByProxy.com

I am going in circles here … almost every domain name on this page is registered by SHE Advertising through DomainsByProxy.com, except for a couple that are registered to Wild West Domains, Inc. which is on the SAME STREET as DomainsByProxy.com

All this has revealed one thing, and is summed up on this web page I found doing a google search for “Marvin Schwartz” 1264 East 31 street

http://sheddingsomelight.com/buy-cameras/list/dealers-bwayfam.html

This elaborate scheme is simply to rip you off, either in money or information. Who knows where the information goes to. Who knows?

If you have have tried to buy anything from any of the webistes or businesses or people listed here, CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD NOW and move on to a reputable dealer. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

PS - wish I had found the sheddingsomelight.com link much earlier!

Cash Rich Taliban Killing More Marines

In a July 2nd AP news report by Ben Feller about Pres Bush promising to send more troops into Afghanistan. Bush conceded that June was a “tough month” in the nearly seven-year-old war.

Now what has happened here? The Taliban was all but destroyed in Afghanistan. Now they have suddenly re-emerged, are well funded, and are killing our sons at the highest rate since the war began seven years ago.

How did the Taliban get to where they are today?

As I wrote on May 7th, “US Military Assisting Taliban in Killing US Marines”, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Forces have been told not to touch the Taliban main source of funding their war against our US Forces, the local poppy crop. The poppy crop is worth $100 Million dollars per year for the Taliban coffers. This money is then used to buy arms that kill our Marines.

These orders came from ‘on high’, from supposedly ‘patriotic’ Americans who were, apparently, too stupid to see what the end result would be. Right? Right?

Yeah Right … come on people, can it be more obvious? They (those ‘on high’) wanted this to happen!

Why would they want more dead Americans in Afganistan? It simply blows my mind that this wasn’t done on purpose.

Let’s examine a possible motive or two …

Republican in the White House in 2009? Could this be a ploy to get John McCain elected? Maybe they (those ‘on high’) used the best and brightest and some of those think tanks to examine how people would vote if the war fronts were escalated. Now that Iraq is becoming more stabilized (supposedly) and there are trial baloons being floated about an advanced withdrawl of troops from Iraq, people are relaxing a little bit about the war. Can’t get a Republican in the White House with that going on now can we? While we’re thinking about the ‘best and brightest’ and those famous Washington ‘think-tanks’, where were they when they decided to guard the Taliban’s $100,000,000 poppy crop?

Kill Off a Bunch of Young Americans? Nahh … they don’t need a war to to that … if that was their goal, why not just let the CIA create a new drug problem that would target young people. It worked with crack cocaine and ecstasy, right?

Any ideas out there? I can’t conceive of any ‘real’ motives why these idiots have allowed this to happen. My tiny brain can’t wrap itself around this.

THINK PEOPLE! This is all being done ON PURPOSE!

Get Ready, Boys and Girls, for the Military Draft of 2009!

Bush & Cheney and other traitors are gearing up for a new war, the war against Iran. If you do not believe this or are unsure it is about to happen then pull your head out of your iPod and read the news.

Without enough military to properly win the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where do you think they will get the bodies to fill the boots on the ground for this new war?

The war will begin before the Republican convention, September 1st - 4th, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They think this will help McBush win the election. The war will probably begin during the Congressional recess, August 11th - September 5th so that Congress will be unable to say anything except after the fact. Since the Republic convention begins September 1st, look for the war to start August 15th - 21st.

The DRAFT will begin AFTER the election. The new president will ‘have no choice’ but to institute the draft.

Here are links to the news reports …

Google news reports about “US war against Iran”
Gates: US will teach Iran a lesson
Bolton: USA should bomb Iranian camps
“Hostile” Iran Sparks U.S. Attack Plan

Bush is wrapping up his week in Europe on his farewell tour and he is giving the European leaders a heads up in person as to the plan.

I believe the plan is ready to go, all they need is a reason that the American public will back. Something will have to be manufactured that will be against us and lead back to Iran … Iranian threats against Israel are not enough, Iranian weapons and training against our troops are not enough, those trial balloons have been flown and no one bit hard enough to matter.

What can you do about it? Not too much really. Vote and try to keep McBush out of office might help but I honestly do not believe the citizens of this country can do to stop this plan from going forward … unless this is widely circulated and public outcry becomes loud enough.

Other related posts:
Why has the Pentagon Resurected the Taliban?
Our Tax Dollars Funding Iraq insurgency & Killing US Troops?
US Military Assisting Taliban in Killing US Marines