This is the kind of thing BLOGs were made for...

It is about 8:30am, I am in the office. Been in for a couple of hours, jet lag has me fucked up and on no sleep. The phone rings, the office is empty.

Comes up NO CALLER ID.

I decide to gamble, and answer the call.

"Hi this is (so and so) from the office of Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds, I am looking Tre McCarthy."

"Um, he is not in quite yet, can I take a message?"

"Certainly, I am calling today, to let Mr. McCarthy know that he has been nominated for the National Leadership Award for his outstanding achievements in the business world."

"Um...ok...let me write this down..."

She rambled on for a few minutes, I took down the number, and got scared. What went thru my head was a fun little bit of imagination where I figured that the police were on the other end, and this was some sort of STING operation to bring me down for some unpaid parking tickets, or maybe a warrant I had forgotten about at some point.

I came to my and entered the following into my little Goggle toolbar; "national leadership award"
And about a million different links popped up, not really giving me any help. I then added the word "republican" to the search. And the following link popped up at #1.

http://aggressive-voice.com/zz532.html

After reading it, I had to call. So I got my pen and paper handy, and called the number back. I told the woman on the phone that I got a message that I had been nominated for some kind of an award. I gave her my name, and she told me that "Congressman Tom Reynolds had a special message just for me" and she asked if she could play it for me. Of course, I said yes, and listened to a really really really horrible recording of the Congressman telling me that all of my hard work had paid off, and I had been nominated for this prestigious award, and that I was needed to join the ranks of other small business owners and the NRCC along with the Business Advisory Council to help stop the overtaxation of small businesses.

After the recording, a man came on the line. No, it was not the Congressman, but another "assistant" to the Congressman. He was now asking if I wanted to accept this award, and also be awarded a position as "honorary chairman" of the Massachusetts Business Advisory Council. I would be able to attend black tie events like the Annual President's Diner, where I would be invited to appear on a panel to discuss the importance of supporting tax cuts. And, most importantly, my business would be added to the long list of supporters that would share space in a FULL PAGE WALL STREET JOURNAL AD calling for more support to the President's important tax cuts. And all that it would cost me would be a portion of the ad cost, $500. And, if I needed to, I could split that up over two payments... Of course, I would also get a copy of my award, suitable for framing, and some sort of a desk top gavel plaque.

I checked my bank balance immediately, and, to my dismay, I was short. I had to turn them down.