Sen. Doug Henry On ‘The Twitter’

By Kleinheider Posted on April 2, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Sen. Doug Henry on the difference between a QWERTY keyboard and a standard numeric telephone keypad and other things during a debate over a ban on texting while driving.

“Mr. Chairman, now with the seatbelt business, I opposed it then and I oppose it now because its not the state’s business if I want to spill myself all over the highway. Ah, but with the Twitter, he hinders me, he’s liable to have a wreck. He’s driving down the road, twittering, and I’m trying to drive in the lane and here he come.

Now I think the distinction between the two is that the first one you infringe upon my liberty. The second one is an infringement on my person by a fellow citizen…

….Now I wouldn’t recommend it, but I can keep my eye on the road and also dial a number on this one. But I defy you, even if you’ve got the eyes of a buzzard, to make a message on this and keep your eyes on the road.

Now if you’re a court reporter or something and trained in the Querty keyboard, do that for a living you can, but if you’re just an average driver who tries to go down the road and punch out a message on this thing you can’t do it.”

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Tags: Blackberry, Doug Henry, eyes of a buzzard, QWERTY, text messaging, Twitter  

How To Get Great Press Coverage For Your Boss For The Foreseeable Future By Lee Pitts

By Kleinheider Posted on April 18, 2008 at 6:21 am

Michael Silence points to a remarkable story out of Washington involving a Chattanooga Times-Free Press reporter and a Senate spokesperson:

The attacker tied Wang’s hands with an electric cord from a hairdryer and bound his legs with the cord from a curling iron. He gagged Wang by stuffing a sock in his mouth, tying another cord around his head and covering his head with a sweater.

Wang heard the man rummage through the house, downstairs and upstairs. Then he heard him call someone else on the phone. “I’m at the address. I’ve got the guy tied up,” Wang overheard.

The man came back upstairs and asked Wang which key would let him out the front door. “I tried to tell him as best I could with a sock in my mouth [that] it’s not on that key chain. He went out through the basement,” Wang said.

Before leaving, the man told Wang, “If you move, there’s going to be trouble. The guy will be here any minute.”

“I figured if they’re going to come back to settle some gambling debt, I better try to escape,” he said. Wang worked the cords off. Although the intruder had taken Wang’s phones and his laptop, he’d left behind Wang’s wife’s computer, which was buried under a bunch of papers.

Wang crawled to the master bedroom, hid behind the bed and tried to think of who might have a BlackBerry on hand. The obvious answer: a Hill staffer like Pitts.

“I was just robbed at home by two burglars,” reads the e-mail Wang got off. “Laptop, phones and wallet all taken. They missed my wife’s laptop. I dont’ [sic] know if they’re still around the house. Please call 911 and ask them to send police.”

“Calling now,” wrote Pitts at 4:16 p.m., a minute after Wang’s e-mail came in.

“Thanks, I am in upstairs bedroom,” Wang wrote at 4:18.

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Tags: Blackberry, Herman Wang, home invasion, Lamar Alexander, Lee Pitts