An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for June 2010
Who Is Congress Really Hurting?
Bank of America Corp. and other banks are preparing new fees on basic banking services as they try to replace revenue lost to regulatory rules, in a push that is expected to spell an end to free checking accounts for many Americans.
Free checking accounts, which have been widely available for more than a decade, have been a boon to middle-class consumers and attracted low-income customers to the banking system for the first time.
Customers will likely be required to pay new monthly maintenance fees on the most basic accounts that don’t generate a lot of activity. To avoid a fee, customers will have to maintain certain account balances or frequently use other banking services, such as credit and debit cards, automated teller machines and online accounts.
Well, I guess I’ll have to just close my checking account, since I rarely use it, and see NO point in paying for the fecklessness of others. What about those poor minimum wager earners? You know the ones that the left insist on keeping in poverty. Will there be exemption for those who earn under a certain amount annually?
Bank of America customers who only want a low-volume checking account will likely be asked to pay for it. Fees will likely be waived for customers who keep their balances high, use bank credit cards or tap its investment advisers. Bank executives declined to discuss specifics of the plan saying it is still being formulated.
Where’s the logic in this? Why not just say the folks who spend themselves into debt, are obliged to the bank, who get free checking? Those who only use their checking accounts to pay their bills, don’t have a bunch of bank cards, and who, like me, don’t use ATMs, will be charged for the ‘privilege’ of having a checking account at that particular bank?
Banks say they stand to lose billions of dollars in revenue from separate new restrictions on credit cards and overdraft transactions that were announced earlier this year. They could lose even more from legislation winding its way through Congress. The Senate version of the financial industry overhaul bill, currently being reconciled with the House version, contains an amendment that could limit fees banks charge to merchants for debit-card transactions.
Once again, the entity that can’t balance their own checkbook, is forcing regulations down the throat of financial institutes, doing more damage. Where do they get this authority? Reading through Article I, Section 8, which lays out the powers of Congress, I didn’t see anything relating to them being able to make laws telling anyone how to run their business. Maybe I’m missing something.
Read the whole thing, and help me out here. Obviously, Congress is so smart, the rest of us just don’t get it. /snark
H/T: Paula
Klavan on the Culture – algore
Daddy – An Honorable ‘Profession’
Fathers Who Are Husbands Spare Children from Poverty
The Foundry
A wedding ring on Dad’s finger is more than a symbol of his commitment to Mom. It also proves to be the ultimate anti-poverty weapon for their children. Now that’s something to celebrate and encourage this Father’s Day. It’s fitting on Sunday to honor all the fathers who strive to keep that commitment, even when they grow weary.
“The principal cause of child poverty in the U.S. is the absence of married fathers in the home,” Robert Rector, senior research fellow in domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, writes in a new paper. “Marriage is a powerful weapon in fighting poverty. Being married has the same effect in reducing poverty as adding five to six years to a parent’s education level.”
Glenn Beck 06/17/10
Revive The American Spirit
Nu . . . nu . . . nuclear
Go ahead and say it loud, Mr. President
by Ted Nugent
As a conservationist, I have long understood the condition of the air, soil and water is an important barometer by which we can measure our own health and priorities as a society and culture.
It was not too distant in our past that American rivers literally caught fire. Our cities were covered in smog from smoke stacks and automobiles that belched pollution.
Largely through American innovation, entrepreneurship and a national commitment to improve the environment, things have changed dramatically for the better. Our air is cleaner, our water more pure.
And while cleaner air, soil and water continue to be the goal, I am also an energy pragmatist. Green energy – wind, solar and hydro – will not meet our tremendous energy demands today or tomorrow – possibly ever.
The lifeblood of America continues to be petroleum and will be so for many years to come. That is an inescapable reality.
One of the reasons BP was drilling a mile underwater in the Gulf is that it and other petroleum companies have been pushed further and further away from our energy-rich coasts by so-called environmentalists and short-sighted politicians. We have vast energy riches off our coasts on the Outer Continental Shelf, the Gulf and off the coast of California – energy that the federal government forbids us to extract.
Read the rest here. Worth your time.
Weasel Time
The Comment and The Response
Joe Barton comments:
Honestly, I don’t see this as an apology so much as a rebuke to the White House for being full of criminal scam artists. Perhaps he could have worded it a bit better, but I understood what he meant.
The Gibbs response:
“What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.”
As is typical for Gibbs, he fails to use what little comprehension skills God graced him with. No one, and I repeat, NO ONE, is excusing BP in this disaster. There should be a criminal investigation…AFTER the gushing stops and the clean up is in effect. In that vein, NO ONE should excuse the federal agencies involved either.
Lives have been damaged by the interference in private business, and the inaction of the federal government. If BP had been allowed to drill at 500 feet instead being forced to drill at 5000, the ‘damn hole’ could have been plugged by now, and perhaps, it wouldn’t have happened. If the EPA, and numerous other federal agencies had gotten the hell out of the way, and let the states involved get to work like they wanted to, the environmental disaster could have been much less devastating.
BP is a privately owned company, with millions of stock holders, both on this side of the Atlantic. To punish them for the disaster is incomprehensible. BP has stated it will pay for the cost of the clean up and all legitimate claims, which it must be held to, by all means possible. That $20billion being managed by anyone involved in the federal government, would be nothing more than a slush fund for the cronies of the White House, aka unions.
Is it the intent of the White House to force BP into bankruptcy? “Extortion” is an ugly thing, but not uncommon in the “Chicago Way”. They are ALL guilty, and should be criminally charged in this disaster!
Isn’t It Better To Minister, Than To Ban?
Bellevue Kicks Gay Coach Out of League
A Mid-South women’s softball coach and her team get banned from a church league, after members learned she was gay.
Jana Jacobson said officials at Bellevue Baptist Church told her the team couldn’t play in their league because she was a lesbian.
Jacobson said she had already registered and paid the entry fee, when she was told she couldn’t play.
She said her team was made up of gay and straight players. Bellevue Baptist didn’t comment on the incident.
Bellevue is a “mega church” around these parts. While I understand their Biblical stand on homosexuality, I’m a little confused as to why gays can’t play softball with the other teams. They are a private entity and free to allow whoever they want on their league. That being said, wouldn’t it make more sense to accept the players, and minister to them? I mean, isn’t that what churches are suppose to do?
2 Timothy 4 1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
While the situation with the Boy Scouts is a LOT different (we’re talking children here), these are grown ups. By the way, homosexuality is not contagious. 
What’s Good For D.C. Is NOT Good For The Rest Of Us
An Offer BP Couldn’t Refuse
The Foundry
On October 13, 2008, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson summoned the CEOs of the nation’s largest banks into a gilded conference room at the Treasury Department just a stone’s throw away from the White House. Each CEO was then handed a one-page document that said their company would agree to sell hundreds of billions worth of equity to the federal government through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). “We plan to announce the program tomorrow – and that your nine firms will be the initial participants.” In case anyone missed the subtle message, Paulson added, “We don’t believe it is tenable to opt out, because doing so would leave you vulnerable and exposed.” Sure enough, just like a certain fictional band land leader once did, all nine CEOs signed their respective contracts.
Glenn Beck 06/16/10
Ann on Alvin
Alvin Greene: The Most Qualified Democrat I Have Ever Seen
by Ann Coulter
Democrats have decided that Alvin Greene’s surprise victory in the South Carolina Democratic senatorial primary must be the result of a Republican dirty trick.
Greene beat Vic Rawl, a former state representative and judge, with a whopping 60 percent of the vote in last Tuesday’s primary, despite Greene’s having no job, no house, no campaign website, no campaign headquarters — indeed, no campaign. Other than paying the $10,000 filing fee, Greene seems to have put no effort into the race whatsoever.
But he does have one thing Rawl doesn’t have: In the grand tradition of legendary Democrats such as Teddy Kennedy, Greene has a felony arrest. (Greene’s inexperience really shows here: Democrats usually wait until after they’re elected to show pornography to college girls.)
So this is not good for the Democrats. Naturally, therefore, they’re blaming Republicans.
Debt As Far As Our Grandchildren Can See
Via Marsha Blackburn.
D’Bama
I can’t believe I’m actually posting this.
And then we have a few reactions:
Obama’s Oil Spill Speech: What Was The Point?
Palin Reacts to Obama’s Oval Office Address on Gulf Disaster
Stuck on stupid: Obama’s czar fetish
Obama’s Oil Spill Speech: Running On Empty
Drunkblogging Obama’s Oval Office Address
Can The One Drop the Buzzer-Beating No. 23 Act?
MSNBC Trashes Obama’s Address this evening
Obama disappoints from the beginning of his speech
What we didn’t hear from Obama last night
Weak Speech from an Indecisive Obama
Obama Asks America to Commit Suicide
Obviously, there are SO many more, but hey, you can do your own work once in a while! 
My reaction after stooping to watch the video? “Whut?” Seriously? Is that the best he can do after this long? There are people seriously hurting, blocked from acting by government red tape, and what is his response? “Why yes, let’s destroy the economy even more with my irrational plan to raise everyone’s bills, that the country can NOT afford!” The man has been sitting on his thumb, spinning, for nearly two months now, and the only thing he can come up with is creating another government bureaucracy? Jeeeeez! Yeah….that’s really going to help the economic recovery. /snark
A side note: (and totally irrelevant) That teeth whistle drives me bugshit! Just sayin’.
Ooops! Almost forgot!
(source)
Too Funny Not To Share
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Alvin Greene Wins South Carolina Primary | ||||
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H/T: Mark via FB
D’Bama – You OWN This One!
A Crisis of Competence
The Foundry
Nearly 31 years ago, on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter told the American people from the Oval Office: “Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.” Last night the American people heard almost the exact same speech from President Barack Obama: “I’ve returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens. … The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash America’s innovation and seize control of our own destiny.”
