BEWARE: Chase Credit institutes $120/year credit card fee

spoke with a Chase rep tonight, as a card holder for more than 10 years, i noticed a 10.00 USD "TRANSACTION FEE" on my 0.00 purchase balance,

the rep said this is a "MONTHLY SURCHARGE", i said what 10/mo, that's 120/yr, to use a freaking card. She indicated this was described in a november disclosure letter.
I asked to reverse the charges, she refused, i advised her that i'll be closing my account.

amazing... is it any wonder maam why Banks are held in such low regard these days.


congress should wrestle these asses to the ground, re institute federal usury statutes, to fix maximum interest rates at 15%. to protect consumers from this sort of pathology.

After the Billions we've dumped onto the CDS/CDO landscape, we continue to get little action from Congress, to shut down these hucksters.

Want Cheaper Gas, Build More Refineries

MSM Stupidity excels when discussing the oil oligarchy, supply and demand and oil pricing. Oil prices are rising because of a) lack of competition(oligarchy) b) no excess production capacity.

Lately McShame suggests compromising gas/diesel tax revenue but doing nothing for the systemic root cause 26% year over year oil price increases. Likewise, Bush and Cheney surf the globe telling producers to produce more, another ludicrous proposition. These are classical 'political' solutions, which don't address the actual root cause of oil pricing problems. So much for Cheneys' vaunted energy task force (the secret meetings with carbon producers and no alternate producersa) and it's alleged benefit for America. Just getting by with a little help for our friends.

BUILD MORE REFINERIES work on ALTERNATIVES

if refineries are in the upper 90% of capacity, and can not produce more volume,
price begins to follow the demand curve. Without adding more refineries, there is no competition between the oil producers to win more customers...

Long term we're gonna hit peak oil, Russia announced (in 4/15/2008 WSJ) their fields have passed peak and are now producing less per year.... Hupert peak.. incoming....


Peak oil along with John Robb's terrorism pricing component will drive oil prices upward as well, i.e. as long as America engages in an unsophisticated 1 dimensional war against terror. In the end, oil can only increase in the long term.. barring a terrific shift in supply or a discovery of microbial oil generation.. we've got to pursue alternatives....

Tax incentives to OilCo's aren't required in this marketplace, instead apply the money to grants and research into alternative fuels, power plants, nuclear, wind, solar panels etc.

an oligarchy isn't going to be pressured to apply their resources for the collective good until they are forced to.

Bush Lies on FISA

President Bush keeps linking immunity for Telcos and FISA. That's a lie.

The FISA bill Bush wanted grants blanket immunity for himself, Cheney and his administration as well as the telcos would participated in illegal wiretaps.

Immunity doesn't protect America, it protects only the president and his proxies from prosecution for illegal acts.

Telcos must operate at the behest of the president as long as the requested activities are legal. Otherwise the phone companies are legally actionable, this is as it must be.

The proposed FISA bill operated over 6 years, which presumably would prevent the next president from modifying the law, although with signing statements, and other unitary executive plays, the next president could harvest all the illegal acts of the president Bush easily.

For more specifics on FISA, how the expiration of this bogus FISA bill, doesn't impact American's at all, and how the president continues to exaggerate and lie about the bill to protect himself and not America, see Glenn Greenwald's excellent oped\

Jihadis throw a wild bash over the Protect America Act
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/15/poe/index.html

rush vs mcCain who cares

Rush,
desperate for relevance in a post Bush world, Rush realizes by objecting to McCain, hopes to gain some sort of political concessions else he'll spiral into declining irrelevance. Rush, the addict, believes the beltway heeds him.. they actually put up with him, and his ranting, heavy breathing, fearing his wrath.

who cares, rush isn't you average guy, multimillionaire, living in Palm Beach one of America's most expensive zip codes, he pretends to speak for all of us.

it's not for us, it's for him and his power.. and the prospects of his power, being dimished is driving him desperate.

it's fun to watch, a corrupt ignorant man, a drug abuser, a man who doesn't stand for conservative constitutional values but the Bush, Delay, Rush beltway corruption and cronyism. the Tax-Cut and Spend GOP generation

Dr Sheela Sathyanarayana vs. cfif.org 403 right wing front group

phthalates, chemicals suspected of impairing male reproductive function, should not apply baby lotions or powders -- except for medical reasons. So concludes a study published in the journal Pediatrics.

note the report says 'suspected'. I've personally spoken to 2 Phd's on phthalate PVC softners, both express concerns about the effects on children which weren't completely understood, but the appearance of high concentrations in child urine was worrisome.

Lead author Sheela Sathyanarayana, an acting assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, advised parents of newborns to buy phthalate-free baby products and "limit [phthalate] exposures to the lowest amount possible."

Some links to Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, and relevant articles appear below. She is doing a great service to child care by spotlighting problems with plastics and their health affects on human beings.

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=Sheela+Sathyanarayana%2C
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gElr4F0YuhZ6iLqf8kXrgK0yT2-AD8UJPAHG0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020103284.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/story?id=4230408&page=1


she's being attacked by a right wing front group that knows nothing about the underlying science or research... but issues pr news wire op pro, defending political opinions. on phthalates, CFIF.org is to child safety and awareness as the bush administration is to rewriting science, suppressing scientific thought and science denials.



The CFIF.org, claims to be an independent organization, an falsely claims that Dr. Sathyanarayana, is engaging in politics with the publishing of her journal article.
it is CFIF.org tied to a republican 501(c) front group, a PAC, a political action committee, whose funding is of course, unspecified. the CFIF.org press release 'op pro' only mentions science when it defines what phthalates. the rest of the (propaganda)press release is Bush Co right wing whinnying.

see below
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Conflict-of-Interest-in-American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Report-10928-1/
contains planted op pro propoganda another staging area for op pro research from 501c

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-04-2008/0004749054&EDATE=
press release progaganda on 'pr news wire' a reputable science journal

http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/flash_2.htm
note the issues links on the left hand side, all politics and agenda, no research

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Individual_Freedom
from sourcewatch,
Center for Individual Freedom ("CFIF") is a nonprofit, 501(c)(4) corporation based in Alexandria, Virginia. It is a member of the Townhall.com consortium. CFIF was founded in 1998 and describes its mission as being to "to protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution." [1]

The CFIF is involved with "strict constructionist" activities regarding judicial and legislative issues. The organization maintains Freedom Line, a radio interview show and We The People, a grassroots organizing effort dedicated to conservative causes.

comment - often front groups have little appreciation for real legal constructionism.

On its website CFIF states that it "relies on private financial support from individuals, associations, foundations and corporations." [3] However, it does not identify which corporations or foundations financially support it.

http://www.centerforindividualfreedom.org/
again mission statement...

http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/salvationarmybe.html
blast message to president bush and congress on immigration. again, deep committed scientific research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Individual_Freedom
wikipedia
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200211/ai_n9151594
more BS on CFIF.org mission statement.

if your really an independent organization, interested in anything other
than getting register as a 501, declare your sources of income, else your a political op pro house, spewing.. attacks for your funder's purposes.

why CFIF.org would oppose child safety and care and not advocate improved and deeper research rather than defend 'status quo' is amusing. why is an organization who claims to be promoting constitutional initiatives, attempting via logical fallacies and political push polling attempting to create FUD.

True patriots care about their families and childrens, CFIF.org apparently believes financial interests are more important than one's family

Ignore the mental invalidates at CFIF.org. Go look at their website and initiatives and appreciate that they violate their own charter.
At a baby show in las vegas, i had an industry manufacterers rep attempt to dsi

AT&T filtering all internet traffic, emails, IM, everything

lambert of Corrente cites the above article.
AT&T Plans to Filter the Internet,

Timely Huh, with FISA up for review, AT&T is privatizing their cozy relationship
with Bush's government to, spy on all American's data. This is outrageous,
call and write your congressman, to reject FISA and immunity for Telec

FISA and Feinstein, needless compromise

Somewhere in cloak and dagger land,
President Cheney, er ah Bush insists that Telcos who received letters from the executive branch not the attorney general, as described in FISA law, ought to be legally inoculated and immune for 'aiding and abetting' executive branch abuses.

Telcos's know FISA, they understand the law and have hordes of lawyers, who can determine what is legal and what isn't. yet, some of them, not Quest, proceeded to violate FISA anyway. now...

Feinstein, (non lawyer) argues that we should give them a pass card, because they didn't follow the law, and meant well.

No FeinStein, your amendment is the proverbial, open barn door.

Why do you favor and defend corporations instead of the constitution you are sworn to uphold, and America's constituents you claim to represent.

On your amendment, explain please, how does retroactive immunity permit legal forensics in determining exactly who violated the law and who didn't, when, where and why, from the VP, the President, Addington, Yoo, AG, all the way down, including members of congress.

the answer is your Amendment submerges any future legal action; perhaps that's why so many congress people are eager to promote and pass FISA with immunity provision. they can remain pleasantly unaccountable to America.

FISA worked before this president, twisted the rules and ignored procedure. A reversion to the prior FISA law, might be just what the horses ordered......

Dear Mr. BlogNRound

Thank you for writing regarding the Bush Administration's request for legislation that would provide immunity for telecommunications companies that are alleged to have provided assistance to the National Security Agency after September 11, 2001. I appreciate your thoughts on this topic, and welcome the opportunity to respond.

The legislation to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) was debated in the Senate on December 17, 2007, but further action is postponed until January. That legislation, which was written by the Senate Intelligence Committee and approved by a vote of 13-2, would provide immunity for such companies if they were specifically requested or directed to provide assistance to the government.

The Intelligence Committee's report on the bill includes declassified text stating that the Executive branch provided letters to electronic communication service providers at regular intervals. These letters all directed or requested assistance and noted that the assistance was authorized by the President and was legal. The Committee's report can be found at http://intelligence.senate.gov/071025/report.pdf.

I introduced an amendment on the Senate floor that would limit this grant of immunity. Under my amendment, cases against the telecommunications companies would go to the FISA Court for judicial review. The Court would only provide immunity if it finds that the alleged assistance was not provided, that assistance met legal requirements, or that a company had a good faith, reasonable belief that assistance was legal.

I believe that this approach strikes the correct balance: it maintains court review and a judicial determination of whether companies provided assistance that they should have known violated the law.

I have also filed an amendment to restore FISA's exclusivity, to ensure that no surveillance program can proceed outside the law in the way that the Terrorist Surveillance Program did for more than five years.

Rest assured that I will make every effort to ensure that new FISA legislation will protect the privacy rights of all Americans without restricting the intelligence community's ability to protect us from attack.

Again, thank you for writing. I hope that you will continue to write on matters of importance to you. Best regards.

Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

conserapedia claims global warming is a joke

conservapedia, writes a biased "wikipedia like" page on global warming.

an example..

Since 1989, advocates have clashed on the issue of whether human beings are more responsible than nature for modern periods of global warming; see "greenhouse warming" and global warming theory.[1]

As an issue, it is a political battle over the science of climate change and is mainly used to justify support for the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to restrict carbon dioxide production on the grounds that it accelerates the "greenhouse effect".

Like the true spokesman/women for the Bush Administration, the climate science is obscured and ofuscated and the global warming issue is distilled into a political disagreement with Kyoto, Al Gore and other misdirections present.

Of course the entire website is wacko, sifting science when useful juxtaposed against creationism, but attempting to place a favorable political 'spin'.

A better approach suggests peering at real atmospheric science, where researchers, not the media spin meisters or politicians, agree that carbon footprint of man as a species has been enormous and seems to be worsening.

sample sources include
http://www.realclimate.org/
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686
http://ccc.atmos.colostate.edu/blog/
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Climate/Climate_Science/CliSciFrameset.html

probably reading conservapedia makes some individuals, like senator inhofe http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/ 'feel better' but it does nothing for truth,
or seriously confronting global warming issues.


consider the research. Consider the impact of