Slacking...

Ok, I know I've been slacking. I own that, but it seems that most of you have been slacking too. Why else would congress be allowed to get away with the crap they are pulling lately? Because we all are slacking. We have forgotten our voice of just a scant year ago. We are not writing, calling, yelling our opposition to their tricks of late. Here's some nice (sic) reading for you this morning...

Right-wing protesters at GOP rally display prominent sign tying health care to the Holocaust.

The big banks are still up to their old tricks

Goodbye to Reforms of 2002

This is the one that pissed me off the most...

New York Businesses Get H1N1 Vaccine

Ok, that's my rant for the day...make a call, write a letter...let them know we are still out here and we are still watching and waiting...oh and yeah, still without a job, still starving and our babies are still going without...but hell yeah, you go on and get your H1N1 vaccine, the country would be devastated if you got sick and died...

It's to little to late for us, but finally they did something for the rest of you...

House Votes to Speed Up Credit Card Reforms

Maloney-Frank bill will implement credit card reforms immediately upon enactment

Washington, DC – The House of Representatives today overwhelmingly approved legislation sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Barney Frank (D-MA) that would push up the effective date of credit card reforms scheduled for next year to immediately upon the signing of the bill. Originally passed by Congress and signed into law by the President last spring, the Credit CARD Act had three staged implementation dates: August 2009, February, 2010, and August, 2010. H.R. 3639 moves up the remaining dates by which banks and credit card issuers would have to comply and applies to the largest card issuers that control over 80% of the credit card market. The bill passed by a vote of 331-92.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney said, “Card companies have redoubled many of the abusive practices that brought Congress to pass my original reforms last Spring. Rather than use the time-- time they asked for-- since the bill’s signing in May to prepare for the changes, they’ve raised rates and fees with absolutely no regard for the dire position of millions of their customers.

“I believe the card issuers have heard the message loud and clear today: their practices can no longer be tolerated. These reforms are crucial changes which level the playing field between card issuers and card holders. The reforms force the credit card market to actually function as markets should: by open competition among card offerings, with clear disclosure of interest rates, fees and other features. It bans rate hikes on existing balances, deceptive due-date gimmicks, and requires consumer opt-in to over-limit fees—and allows consumers enough time to switch cards if other terms and conditions change,” Maloney said.

“Consumers, especially in this economy, cannot wait any longer for these protections. I am extremely pleased that this legislation passed today,” said House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY), who successfully offered an amendment today that will move the effective date of the bill to the date of enactment.

The House also approved an amendment, offered by Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Betsy Markey (D-CO), permitting card issuers that adopt a moratorium on interest rate increases on current balances and new balances incurred before Feb. 22 to be exempt from the earlier effective date for a provision that requires an issuer to apply customer payments to the highest rate balance. Today’s bill also would exempt small credit card issuers that frequently outsource computer programming functions, and gift card providers, due to the fact that gift cards have already been printed and shipped for the 2009 holiday season. Both would have to comply with the later deadlines previously laid out in the Credit CARD Act.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) has introduced companion legislation (S. 1833) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, has introduced an immediate moratorium on retroactive rate increases (S. 1927).

The provisions which will take effect immediately upon enactment include:

·Prohibits arbitrary interest rate increases and universal default on existing balances;

·Prohibits issuers from charging over-limit fees unless the cardholder elects to allow the issuer to complete over-limit transactions, and also limits over-limit fees on electing cardholders;

·Requires payments in excess of the minimum to be applied first to the credit card balance with the highest rate of interest;

·Prohibits issuers from setting early morning deadlines for credit card payments;

·Prohibits interest charges on debt paid on time (double-cycle billing ban);

·Requires issuers extending credit to young consumers under the age of 21 to obtain an application that contains: the signature of a parent, guardian, or other individual 21 years or older who will take responsibility for the debt; or proof that the applicant has an independent means of repaying any credit extended;

·Requires penalty fees to be reasonable and proportional to the omission or violation.

·Requires that creditors periodically review all interest rate increases since January 2009 and reduce rates when a review indicates that a reduction is warranted.

These provisions already took effect last August 20th:

·Provide increased written notice to consumers of any increases in the interest rate or otherwise makes a significant change to the terms of a credit card account;

·Inform consumers of their right to cancel the card before the rate hike goes into effect;

·Send statements to consumers 21 days before the due date of any payments.

FSDWebUpdate

Sunday Morning Procrastination :)

Here I sit, coffee to my left, jar of peanut butter to the left of that, complete with spoon, Sheryl Crowe on the Finetune player singing "If it makes you happy" can't get much better than that.

The roast is in the oven and there is a load of clothes in the washer and one in the dryer.

Then there is this...the four to six page paper due at midnight tonight expecting me to relate Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory to my decision to enter a master's program looming all around me, books stacked in every available space on the desk. I say "available space" because there is a cat in the window, one on the printer and one on the cpu all staring at me wondering what I am going to do. I can not wrap my head around that subject, much less four to six pages, and I can't find any research to give me any ideas. I guess it's not a very important subject for research...why any middle aged woman in her right mind would decide she needed a masters in mental health counseling.

It seems as though every assignment so far has been designed to make you drag your laundry out for all the world to see and analyze it...crap, I need a therapy session or six :)

Did I ever tell you I'm one of those who can't do anything unless she's under the pressure of a deadline? Don't worry about me...I'll be cranking it out ninety to nothing probably right up until 11:59 :)

Postcards from Amerah

Please keep Amerah and her sister in your prayers. These are trying times for the both of them.

She sent this to me today and as always managed to give me a smile and a laugh despite it all...

"Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his cof­feepot with water to pre­pare his morn­ing cof­fee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging lib­eral fought for min­i­mum water-quality stan­dards. With his first swal­low of water, he takes his daily med­ica­tion. His med­ica­tions are safe to take because some stu­pid com­mie lib­eral fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his med­ica­tions are paid for by his employer’s med­ical plan because some lib­eral union work­ers fought their employ­ers for paid med­ical insur­ance — now Joe gets it too.

He pre­pares his morn­ing break­fast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man lib­eral fought for laws to reg­u­late the meat pack­ing industry.

In the morn­ing shower, Joe reaches for his sham­poo. His bot­tle is prop­erly labeled with each ingre­di­ent and its amount in the total con­tents because some cry­baby lib­eral fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks out­side and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some envi­ron­men­tal­ist wacko lib­eral fought for the laws to stop indus­tries from pol­lut­ing our air.

He walks on the government-provided side­walk to sub­way sta­tion for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him con­sid­er­able money in park­ing and trans­porta­tion fees because some fancy-pants lib­eral fought for afford­able pub­lic trans­porta­tion, which gives every­one the oppor­tu­nity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excel­lent pay, med­ical ben­e­fits, retire­ment, paid hol­i­days and vaca­tion because some lazy lib­eral union mem­bers fought and died for these work­ing stan­dards. Joe’s employer pays these stan­dards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employ­ees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unem­ployed, he’ll get a worker com­pen­sa­tion or unem­ploy­ment check because some stu­pid lib­eral didn’t think he should lose his home because of his tem­po­rary misfortune.

It is noon­time and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is fed­er­ally insured by the FSLIC because some god­less lib­eral wanted to pro­tect Joe’s money from unscrupu­lous bankers who ruined the bank­ing sys­tem before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fan­nie Mae-underwritten mort­gage and his below-market fed­eral stu­dent loan because some elit­ist lib­eral decided that Joe and the gov­ern­ment would be bet­ter off if he was edu­cated and earned more money over his life­time. Joe also for­gets that his in addi­tion to his fed­er­ally sub­si­dized stu­dent loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the coun­try. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating lib­eral fought for car safety stan­dards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boy­hood home. His was the third gen­er­a­tion to live in the house financed by Farm­ers’ Home Admin­is­tra­tion because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.

The house didn’t have elec­tric­ity until some big-government lib­eral stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Secu­rity and a union pen­sion because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating lib­eral made sure he could take care of him­self so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps say­ing that lib­er­als are bad and con­ser­v­a­tives are good. He doesn’t men­tion that the beloved Repub­li­cans have fought against every pro­tec­tion and ben­e­fit Joe enjoys through­out his day.

Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government lib­er­als ruin­ing our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes every­one should take care of them­selves, just like I have.”

Janann W. Ransom"


Take care of yourself woman, you know I'm prayin' for you and sister too.

Guest Post

It seems as though I'm not going to post anything. Adrienne contacted me asking if she could write up a post for me to post on here. I wrote her back saying "as long as it pertains to social work' and this is what she wrote. I have to admit I wasn't sure if I would post it and even after reading it I still wasn't sure. Then I read it again. I think I will leave it up for awhile to come back to when I need to be reminded or when I'm having a bad day or I'm feeling particularly cynical. Thanks Adrienne, it's great to see social work from someone else's eyes every now and then.

What Social Work Involves

When you earn a degree in social work, you plan to help those who are less fortunate than you. You have visions about making a huge difference in people’s lives and of them being eternally grateful to you. But, a social worker’s life is nothing spectacular like the movies – you are not a hero or heroine who steals the show. Instead, you are the constant but steady presence in the lives of people who need help and are desperate for it. You may not make their life out of the ordinary, but you sure do much to make it bearable. So if you’re thinking of going in for social work, here’s what the career involves:

* Long hours, long lasting memories: Yes, you may have to work long hours, but the memories you form stay with you for life. Some may not be all that pleasant, but the success stories of people you have helped linger and come back to soothe you when things don’t seem to be going too well. The good times make you stick through the bad ones, no matter how tough things are.
* Grateful people, angry people: You’d be surprised at how grateful people are when you make a positive difference in their lives with your help and encouragement. But that’s only one end of the spectrum. On the other, you have those who take out their anger against the system on you – as far as they’re concerned, you’re the scapegoat who is to blame for all their troubles. So you must be prepared to deal with all kinds of people in the same frame of mind.
* Average salary, above average relationships: The pay’s not much, but the relationships you form with people are truly rich and rewarding. When you bond with your clients, especially when there are children involved, and help them get back on their feet and past their struggling days, you cement a lasting friendship that stands even though you are no longer a regular presence in their lives.
* A sense of satisfaction: And last and most important of all, when you help other people and feel that you are making a difference in their lives, you feel a sense of satisfaction, one that makes you feel good about yourself and what you are doing with your life. It is true that there is more joy in giving than in receiving, because when you give your time and effort to help people as a social worker, you feel yourself being filled with an inner peace and contentment that cannot be bought at any price.

By-line:

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of accelerated online degree . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson83@yahoo.com

Postcards from Amerah

Being southern women and totally dumbfounded by the entire incident Amerah and I present to you another southern woman's letter to Joe Wilson...



"Joe Wilson, Member
United States Congress
212 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D. C 20515-4002



903 Port Republic Street
Beaufort, South Carolina 29902



Mr. Wilson:

I am an 80 year old mother and my older child is 51 years old; but, if ever I were to hear him call anyone a liar or rudely and obstreperously tell someone they were telling a lie, I would slap his face.. My two children, 41 and 51 respectively, are very well reared as was I. I can remember as a little innocent child calling someone a liar.. I only did it one time because the lecture in the form of a lesson in proper decorum sank in, and to this day, I have never called anyone a liar. My mother considered this the ultimate in rudeness and disrespect, not only for the person I called a liar, but for me, myself.

Having learned that lesson at such an early age, it made me cringe when you, at age 62, and a former military man, yelled to the President of the United States of America, “You lie.” As a military man, you know the chain of command; and, you were addressing the Commander in Chief of the United States of America. Of course, President Obama who is a very refined gentleman did not respond and he kept right on target delivering the most brilliant speech I have ever heard. I can say this with a degree of authority because I have been witness to every presidency since Herbert Hoover. Never in the hallowed halls of Congress have I witnessed such coarse, gross, despicable behavior.

I don't know if your mother is alive or not, but if she is, I'm certain that she hung her head in shame knowing that all over the world you have disgraced her, yourself, your wife, your four sons, your office, your constituency and your country. Children of good breeding, who are properly reared carry the teachings of their parents throughout their lives. At 80 everything I do is tested against, “what would my mother think of that?” I would never defame her precious memory by demonstrating lack of self control and a knowledge of the social graces that separate women from ladies and men from gentlemen.

My mother was a proper Southern genteel lady who commanded respect because of the way she carried herself. I would think that your being from the South, you would have gotten some of that good ole Southern hospitality and gentility that seems to be characteristic of intelligent people of the South.

I do so hope you will listen to the foreign media as I did late last night. You are an international disgrace because from Ireland to China and England, your crudity was the main topic of conversation.

I note that you have a law degree. I wonder how proud your alma mater, University of South Carolina Law School, was of you tonight as you showed to the world that education without character is vacuous and meaningless. There is a popular expression of people with degrees who lack common sense, they are referred to as “educated fools.”

If you were playing to the media and to the camera for attention, you succeeded because your worldwide legacy will be that you were the ill-suited and ill-placed person who demeaned himself in the halls of Congress for the first time in U S history.

Written with embarrassment for my country,
Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration


****Editor's Note:

Tell Congressman Joe Wilson what you think of his comments:

DC Address:


The Honorable Joe Wilson
United States House of Representatives
212 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4002

DC Phone:

202-225-2452

DC Fax:

202-225-2455

Email Address:

http://www.house.gov/formwilson/IMA/issue.htm

WWW Homepage:

http://www.joewilson.house.gov/


District Offices:

903 Port Republic Street
Beaufort, SC 29902

Voice: 843-521-2530
FAX: 843-521-2535"

New? Blogs for You this Morning

I'm pretty sure I've told you of Ornery Bastard before. Prepare yourself for profanities before going over there, but not only is he worth the read, the people leaving comments to his ravings are too. One of the worthiest is Elizabeth whose blog is The Middle of Nowhere. I particularly enjoyed her comments over at Ornery Bastard(kept me from having to comment). Her post titles alone make me want to go back over and over :) Have fun!