Too Good To Pass Up....

Highlights of the Senate Credit-Card Bill

I'm fair and balanced, if something good comes out of this God-forsaken administration I'll be the first to state it. And so I'll state this Credit Card Bill seems to me to be a good move. Credit card companies need to make money legitimately, not simply off of unethical business practices. The bill passed almost unanimously - and here's what it covers:

Here are the major elements of Senate credit-card bill, just passed by the Senate and likely to be adopted by House.

Existing balances: Issuers cannot retroactively change the rate on an existing balance unless the account is 60 days delinquent.

Payments: A consumer payment above the minimum applies first to the balance with the highest rate.

Teaser rates: Issuers cannot raise rates for the first year after an account opened. Promotional rates must last at least six months.

Bills: Issuers must send a bill 21 days before the due date.

Over limit: Issuers cannot charge over-limit fees on credit cards unless the consumer has signed up to allow such transactions.

Minors: For consumers under 21 years old, a company must get the signature of a parent or another to take responsibility for the debt, or it must obtain proof that the under-21 consumer can repay credit.

Disclosure: Cardholders must get 45 days notice of change in terms.

Fees: Issuers cannot charge fees to pay by mail, phone, and electronic transfer or online, except for expedited service.

Gift cards: All gift cards must have at least a five-year life.

You would think we wouldn't need a bill for some of these things, but at least something is being done about some of these shifty practices.





Meanwhile, Obama calls for strict MPG regulations on future vehicles by 2016.....but when will we figure out that we could create a 200 MPG vehicle but the gasoline companies will meanwhile just be raising gas prices to compensate themselves? What difference does a 20mpg vehicle at $2.25 a gallon make, vs. a 40mpg vehicle paying $4.50 a gallon for gas?

Time to update the list!

In a previous blog I began listing out the excuses we've seen thus far by the gasoline companies as to why prices go up.

Well, according to AAA we've got new ones to add to the list! So I updated the list, and here it is.

Excuse Tracker for reasons that gas prices increase:

1. Winter months, heating
2. Hurricane in Gulf of Mexico
3. Manufacturing demands by industrial nations, i.e. China
4. Americans and SUVs
5. Market speculation
6. March and April "pressures on refineries"
7. Tensions in Middle East
8. A whale died in the Atlantic
9. A turtle sneezed in the Pacific
10. Global warming
11. Pollen levels
12. Jupiter's red spot
13. The dog ate it.
14. Gas prices take a while to come down because the stations are still selling what they bought at the higher prices
15. Gas prices take no time at all to skyrocket overnight, because reason #14 doesn't apply the other way around.
16. Oil up to pay for alternative resource research
17. Because OPEC says so!
*NEW*
18. A special summer blend is more expensive than the winter blend, as it uses special ingredients! But I thought it was higher in the winter because of the heating demands?
19. Summer vacation, kids are off! And since they all drive cars, this makes total sense!
20. Memorial Day weekend and Independence Day, even tho it's still May and that's in July.

When 'Breaking News' is literally breaking news

With the current swine flu, I'm sorry H1N1 (which sounds more like an assault rifle) - it brought me back to the topic of the media, and how the media operates today as opposed to yesterday.

BREAKING NEWS - POSSIBLE CASE IN (fill in blank) COUNTY.
Maybe. Possible. Could be.

In years past, when journalism actually had a code of ethics and were held to some sort of responsibility to actually check facts before reporting something as news, journalism did just that. News was not news until the facts were checked out and a report was given stating all the known facts. Sure there would be a delay but you knew when the report came out, you'd get all the facts and everyone would get their facts straight.

But now? Maybe it's the information age (which ironically seems to be full more of misinformation than information), but it seems that with the evolution of the internet and television ratings, "news media" would rather be the first to the "breaking news" line, whether or not it's true doesn't matter. As long as "I said it first! I win!"

And then, go back and check the actual facts, later. Even though you already threw out a bunch of garbage that people read or heard or watched as news. Most of the time, they don't even go back to correct what was wrong in their new flash, they move on to the next "breaking news". If we're lucky maybe there's a little correction on the back of page 400 in the paper. On TV? Or online? They never go back and correct themselves.

Notice how all the news channels, network channels, newspaper's online entities, they all do it. They all want to be the first to report something, at all costs. Whether or not it's even correct or valid or truthful has become 2nd priority. Never mind it may not be true, just get it out there first, so we can say we were the first to report it. If it ruins someone's name or image, or is completely full of nontruths and unconfirmed "facts" - who cares? We won, we said it first! We got the ratings or the page clicks.

The same goes for the political world, and in this regard Rush Limbaugh has an expression "Drive-By Media", a term I absolutely love. He claims the media does sensationalist drive bys, similar to that of gang-bangers making a hit on a target. They throw something out there for the sole purpose to devestate or destroy someone or something, and then drive off never to speak of it again. Only then others have to come by and pick up the pieces, perform the investigations, see who was hit, and try to heal the wounds, state the actual truth, and point out what was not true, what was flat out lies, or simply made up.

When will journalism be factual again instead of fashionable?