Sunday Morning Quick Hits

Let the Fed know exactly what you think about the banks that issued the plastic in your wallet Through August 4th, the Federal Reserve is giving the consuming public a chance to weigh in on new credit-card rules it proposed in May. (The deadline for comments regarding some related proposals, mainly regarding credit-card disclosures, is July 18.) Among the changes proposed: prohibiting, in many instances, credit-card companies from hitting you with a higher interest rate on already-amassed debt. In another change issuing banks would be required to apply at least a portion of consumer payments to higher-rate debt. Some issuers put payments first to cheaper debt, such as balance transfers that have low rates, rather than to higher-rate purchases. But perhaps the most significant change would be to prohibit two-cycle billing, a deft little scam by which banks compute interest on debt on days preceding the most recent billing cycle. This practice, which in my strident, pro-consumer POV amounts to nothing short of mail fraud - because it results in borrowers paying interest on debt paid off during the previous month's grace period. Credit card companies are in a lather, insisting that these measures will "harm consumers" to which my debt-free ass says "PPPHHHBBBBTTTTT!" To weigh in, go to the Federal Reserve website and click on the "Consumer Information" tab at the top of the page.

Another meat recall Did you know that yet another meat recall is underway, this one involving over five million pounds of ground beef that originated at a packing plant owned by Nebraska Beef Ltd, and was sold to Kroger stores? (KC readers, Dillon's stores are owned by Kroger.) This is not the first time that Nebraska Beef has been implicated in e Coli illnesses. In fact, Nebraska Beef is the company that sued a church that put on a potluck after the family of a woman who died after eating e Coli tainted meatballs at the gathering. After authorities in Minnesota traced the beef that killed her to Nebraska Beef, Ltd. her family sued Nebraska Beef. NB, in turn, sued the church - claiming the volunteers at the church who prepared the food were responsible. In 2007, the company sued the USDA, claiming they were being picked on unfairly by the federal agency that insisted they follow the rules. No word on whether the judge who tossed the case was laughing out loud when he dismissed that case.




Heavens no, we can't "insult" the Chinese! In keeping with his (total lack of) character, the idiot in the oval will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics - because failing to do so would be an insult to China. Funny, he doesn't care nearly so much about insulting his own countrymen or he would have long since resigned in disgrace and turned himself over to the authorities at the Hague.



No surprises here Employees at the Department of education have abused their agency-issued credit cards. Can we put some teeth into the rules and give some of these thieving jackasses jail time? Hows about mandatory sentences for stuff like this? I would rather lock up people like this than college students who get caught smoking weed.


I understand the dedication, but as a fellow military wife, I take her side It is frankly un-fucking-conscionable that any one soldier has served forty-two god-damned months in Iraq, and if the military hadn't been broken by the chief chickenhawk who idiotically started a vanity war, we wouldn't hear about such abuses of our personnel in uniform - and believe me, forty-two months in a war zone is abuse. Especially when this Soldier serves a president who couldn't even hack it in a champagne-TANG unit, and isn't fit to spit-shine this mans boots. That his wife hasn't bailed is a testament to her. She gets my most crisp salute. (And no warmongering republican chickenhawk fucker will ever get a vote from me. There just aren't any more Nancy Kassebaums running for office.)