The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
Considering the horrible experiences I've had recently on American Airlines (multiple cancelled flights with sucktastic customer communication about them), it was fortuitous to run into Ray Balis, an active flight Attendant, at Netroots Nation 2009.
Ray was elected by the American Airlines Flight Attendants to represent them during the negotiation process with American Airlines. He reveals some onerous corporate practices that may (not) surprise you. Flight attendants feel your pain in many ways, as much as you are as a consumer -- they are getting jerked around by the financial woes of the airlines -- and the decisions made up the food chain. When flights are cancelled, flight attendants aren't paid; they are often stranded with all the same inconveniences we are, and they don't receive a paid-for lunch (I've spoken to others who have to brown bag it), except on international long flights. That was one benefit negotiated away when the airlines played hardball.
To learn more about American Airlines flight attendants negotiations, visit the site Ray refers to in the video, http://APFAVirtualPicket.com.
Wow. It's a nice stretch of bad American Airlines performanceluck as Kate's aunt Mary and uncle Hank got flipped the flight cancellation bird on their way to Birmingham this weekend for the wedding.
They bought their tix in May and hadn't heard a peep since so all was well. They packed, boarded their pets, got ready to go and then the phone rang -- the digital prerecorded voice of doom from "something special not in the air" announced that their flight was deep-sixed. They were rebooked on a flight that would get them to BHM at 10 PM the next day.
I guess the only things Mary and Hank can be thankful for is that: 1) they planned to arrive a day and a half ahead of the rehearsal dinner so they didn't miss that, and 2) they weren't staying in a hotel so they didn't get screwed out of that $, and 3) they hadn't made it to the airport for a stellar butt-numbing wait in the terminal to find out their fate.
Let's just say I'm about to take two trips in the next two weeks, and I purposely didn't choose American when I bought tix. It took a lot to keep me from deleting this bit of shilling the moment it hit the inbox...
FOR RELEASE: Monday, Aug. 3, 2009
AMERICAN AIRLINES AWARD-WINNING WINE SELECTION
ACKNOWLEDGED BY GLOBAL TRAVELER MAGAZINE
American’s Choice of Sparkling Wine Named Best for Domestic First Class Flights
FORT WORTH, Texas – It’s time, once again, to break out a case of the bubbly at American Airlines. According to Global Traveler magazine, the premier choice for sparkling wine while cruising at 35,000 feet belongs to American Airlines.
Global Traveler’s panel of wine judges selected American Airlines as serving the Best Sparkling Wine in the North American Premium Class category for its Gloria Ferrer Brut Sonoma. This annual “Wines on the Wing” wine survey accolade was formally announced in the August issue of Global Traveler magazine.
“American Airlines is honored that Global Traveler has named our Premium Class sparkling wine the best,” said Lauri Curtis, American’s Vice President – Onboard Service. “We strive to serve the finest wine possible and are consistently working to enhance the inflight dining experience for all of our wine-loving passengers.”
Yeah, they know WHY you fly, but the cancellations let you know why you won't be flying, and you won't be able to sample the wine if you're sitting in the terminal waiting for a plane that will never arrive.
Oh, I forgot to let you all see this bit of fun when it came a few weeks ago -- apparently some employees at AA read the Blend and I received a preposterous email from the LGBT liaison, George Carrancho.
Hi Pam,
A few people have passed me your blog… While I know that I cannot make up for what has happened I wanted to personally apologize for what happened and ask you to give us another chance!
My role at American is outreach to the LGBT community. Please let me know the next time you are traveling on AA that way I can monitor your flights and try to prevent this from reoccurring.
Hope you have an amazing summer and thank you for your business!
Best Regards, George Carrancho National Sales & Marketing Manager for LGBT Community.
I'm sure he meant well, but Carrancho must think I'm a dunce if I'm supposed to believe he could somehow intervene with the airline's problems by "monitoring" them, rotflol. I mean come on, how lame is that? Was I supposed to feel comforted? It's nice, of course, that they have a Community Marketing Manager for LGBTs, but the flight wasn't cancelled because a homo was about to go airborne; I was just a Jane Doe coach class person getting screwed again (and again), by the airline. People in the terminal were flaming mad.
The fact is that there's more than a flight that gets deep-sixed when the sign changes to "CANCELLED." In the case of the conference trip to nowhere I was told that I'd receive a refund because there wasn't any way for AA to get me to the destination before my panel and the entire event was over the next day. I haven't seen the credit back yet; I need to check and see if that materialized. For the first cancellation, I was out a night's hotel stay in NYC and parking.
I realize the airlines are running tight margins financially, but couldn't AA offer something, anything aside from inane fantasies like the above? We already know that the airlines do just about anything to avoid a refund; how about a big boost of mileage points to customers at least?
The full release is below the fold if you want to know more about the lovely award-winning wine that you'll miss when your flight is cancelled.
It's time for another airline horror story. Cheer me up by sharing your worst experiences...
I was supposed to be in Chicago right now, where I was to appear on a panel tomorrow AM at Blogging While Brown, one of the few conferences I really wanted to attend this year:
Netroots in Action
Panelists will discuss how social media tools can be used to affect changes in policy, improve communities, and influence elections.
Moderator: Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig, www.allaboutrace.com Panelists: Megan Tady, www.freepress.net Pam Spaulding, www.pamshouseblend.com
Cheryl Contee, www.jackandjillpolitics.com
Well, to refresh everyone's memory, on Monday, American screwed me (and Kate) by canceling the flight to NYC for the Women's Media Center Media Awards. We had planned to go a day early so we could spend time with family. But American couldn't rebook us until almost 4PM the next day, meaning AA stole our day there, and pickpocketed me for a night's hotel stay.
What happened this time? My flight to Chicago today was 2:30 PM. I was to return on Sunday AM around 10:30, so it was a quick trip. The above-mentioned panel was at 11AM on Saturday.
So I arrive at a reasonable hour at RDU and settle in to wait at the gate for about 45 min. I go get a soft drink and look at the board and it says "delayed" with a revised arrival time at 3:30 PM. I figured it was weather, no big deal. I popped open my laptop so I could check mail and blog (which is why you had fresh posts from me this afternoon). I had the AA site open so I could monitor the delays, and it kept creeping up by a half hour.
Eventually someone came on the PA system and mentioned the weather was poor (t-storms). They said the plane was arriving at O'Hare soon and would be taking off around 5PM. Time goes by and across the terminal, a United flight bound for Chicago boards and takes off. My fellow AA passengers take note of this. The man comes back on the PA system and says around 6 that the plane is taking off (actually I wasn't the only one who heard him say it was "in the air") and that it would be here in around 2 hours, putting our departure at 8:04PM.
Well, by this time I was starving so I went and had a bagel. Came back and sat down and popped the computer back open and rechecked the AA site. It said FLIGHT CANCELED. I hadn't heard anything on the PA, and the board didn't show it canceled. I went over to the gate where a line had already formed for people looking to rebook. The word on the line was that there were no direct flights to Chicago now and none tonight.
Well, it's about 7:30 PM now when I reach the counter and the weary AA agent, who had been unfairly taking abuse from (justifiably) irate passengers, asked me what my situation was. I was kind to him despite being pissed beyond belief and said, "Well, I think I'm screwed. Can you get me to Chicago by 11AM tomorrow?" He just shook his head. The problem was that he couldn't get me there earlier than 4PM CT, which kind of defeats the purpose of the trip. Even on other carriers.
My favorite part of this nightmare is when I asked if I could get a voucher or refund. He said no, unless you had bought trip insurance, weather isn't covered. But I told him that I HAD done this when I ordered the ticket, and then received an email the following day from Travelocity that it could not be processed "for technical reasons." So even when I tried to protect my investment, I was screwed.
As I was about leave the counter, a disoriented flight crew was visibly (and audibly) pissed that they were stuck in RDU and another pilot clearly didn't know where he was supposed to be and asked why they (the airline) didn't bother calling to tell him (that his schedule had changed).
Now I know that AA picks traveler's pockets -- and it has a crappy scheduling department that screws over its flight crews as well.
I drove home and I called Travelocity to see if I could beg for mercy there. I explained the situation to the agent and he obviously thought I could be rebooked somehow, so he put me on hold to call AA. I was on hold for about 10 minutes as I contemplated throwing the phone across the room. He came back on and said "American Airlines will credit you the full amount for your ticket."
While that's somewhat good news for me, or at least my wallet, it shows you how f**ked the airline is. AA must have screwed so many people that they couldn't rebook in any sane timeframe that it felt it had no choice but to refund.
But the real mess is that I am missing a conference that I very much wanted to attend. Again, from AA's web site's customer commitment service plan:
American Airlines and American Eagle are in business to provide safe, dependable and friendly air transportation to our customers, along with numerous related services. We are dedicated to making every flight you take with us something special. Your safety, comfort and convenience are our most important concerns.
7:35 PM: Excuse my French, but American Airlines/American Eagle is on my sh*t list right now, after a long day. While Kate and I were waiting at RDU's terminal gate for our flight I received a call on my cell phone to say our flight has been cancelled.
If that's not bad enough, the automated message said we were rebooked on a flight not for later tonight, but for 3:40 PM tomorrow. We had planned to spend time with family in Brooklyn during the day on Tuesday and now that's not going to happen. Damn, you AA.
And because we prepaid the hotel, we lose that $$$ for a night's stay as well. And of course there's no guarantee that we'll show up tomorrow at RDU and THAT flight won't get canceled and never make it to NYC to receive the award.
How do airlines get away with this sh*t? Do they think their customers have money to piss away when they do this crap?
American Airlines and American Eagle are in business to provide safe, dependable and friendly air transportation to our customers, along with numerous related services. We are dedicated to making every flight you take with us something special. Your safety, comfort and convenience are our most important concerns.
Considering the horrible experiences I've had recently on American Airlines (multiple cancelled flights with sucktastic customer communication about them), it was fortuitous to run into Ray Balis, an active flight Attendant, at Netroots Nation 2009.
Wow. It's a nice stretch of bad 
