Bank of America Will Begin to Charge $5 For Using Your Debit Card PS667AS – Ambir PS667 Simplex A6 ID Card Scanner 48 bit Color – 24 bit Grayscale – 600 dpi Optical Only Truth and Balance Will Set Us Free thefunshit says: Gen Y Guide: Credit Unions Getting Plugged In for Young People You’re age 18-29, a busy young… http://t.co/JXU52sjW
Continue reading …Starbucks’ CEO Schultz Brewing a Double-Shot of Politics in Your Venti Half-Caf
September 30, 2011 No Comment
Are you a Starbucks Rewards Member? If you are, you probably got this awesome warm-and-fuzzy feeling email today about how you could help Starbucks help needy schools by funding Bill Gates’ DonorsChoose.org initiative. It all sounds great, doesn’t it? msnbc’s Morning Joe and Starbucks encourage you to support public schools through DonorsChoose.org. Starting October 4th, Starbucks retail stores and participating grocery stores will feature a select number of marked bags of Gold Coast Blend®- Morning Joe Edition coffee with $5 DonorsChoose.org donation stickers*. To direct funding to the public school classroom project of your choice visit DonorsChoose.org/starbucks**. [...and the fine print...] **Offer only available through codes found on specially-marked packages of Starbucks® Gold Coast Blend® – Morning Joe Edition coffee. We will donate $5 for every code entered through 12/31/2011, until $600,000 has been given. Enter your code at www.donorschoose.org/starbucks then choose a classroom project to receive the $5 donation. Codes expire on 12/31/2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Donations can only be directed to existing projects on DonorsChoose.org. Coffee purchases and this $5 donation are not tax-deductible. For promotional details and restrictions, visit www.donorschoose.org/starbucks. Awww, isn’t that nice? A special blend for the conservative dude on the so-called “liberal” channel, and all you have to do is buy it to send five bucks off to DonorsChoose.org, which until recently I supported for the most part. The idea behind DonorsChoose is for teachers to put up a wish list for their classrooms, and small donors to fulfill it with…small donations. This is all great except that it now includes charter schools, which already receive plenty of money from big donors, including a lot of very, very far right wing donors. It’s also symptomatic of a larger issue, which is the abject underfunding of our schools. What’s next? A $5 donation for every bag of Bill O’Reilly Decaf Blend? Or maybe the Erick Erickson Afternoon Teabag? Howard Schultz, as you may recall, is the kahuna behind the effort to de-fund certain candidates running for office by withholding contributions until they step up to his tune.. This would be just awesome for those of us who think corporate money has too much influence over politics, except that Schultz’ effort, if successful, would punish Democratic candidates at the local, state and federal levels while leaving conservative candidates to happily continue collecting their big donations at the door, given that Schultz and his friends are the sort of Third Way types who put a lot of money toward Democrats, but expect those Democrats to deliver corporate help. So maybe Schultz isn’t a conservative in liberals’ clothing. But the net effect of what might otherwise be a noble effort is to raise visibility to the one professed conservative on the MSNBC network with one effort, while starving Democratic candidates of donations on the other. We can argue all day long about whether or not it’s a good thing for Democrats to be starved of corporate donations. It may well be. But it certainly doesn’t bode well for competing in states where lots of conservative corporate money is landing. In honor of Schultz’ deeply charitable effort to pimp Joe Scarborough’s show, I’m going to make a donation to the Blue America candidates . Give up that Morning Joe blend and join me?
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38.7 million people who carry Bank of America debit cards will soon face a $5 fee for swiping their debit cards. The charge is pushing some bank customers to consider switching banks. (Sept. 30)
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MIA on a trapeze high above New York, Diane Keaton flat on the floor, a windswept Marion Cotillard… great photographers on how they found new ways to shoot some of the world’s most photographed stars
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Obama welcomes news of Awlaki’s death in US air strike, and says dual US-Yemeni citizen advanced ‘murderous agenda’ A missile fired from an American drone has struck and killed a radical US-born Islamic cleric in Yemen , bringing an end to a controversial, two-year manhunt but reigniting questions over the targeting of a US citizen on foreign soil. Anwar al-Awlaki, a dual US-Yemeni citizen, has been one of America’s top targets in its fight against al-Qaida. His firebrand rhetoric had become renowned on jihadi websites and is thought to have inspired many more followers. With a blog, a Facebook page and numerous YouTube videos of his sermons, he had increasingly been regarded by the US as one of the most dangerous al-Qaida leaders. President Barack Obama authorised a request to target Awlaki in April last year, making him the first US citizen to be a legal target for assassination in the post-9/11 years. He was one of two US citizens killed in the strike. Samir Khan, US-born editor of Al Qaeda’s online jihadist magazine, was also killed in the attack, according to Yemeni officials. Faced with accusations from critics on Friday afternoon that the administration had authorised an “extra-judicial murder”, White House officials sought to justify the strike on Awlaki officials as “self defence.” Obama welcomed the news of Awlaki’s death. At a ceremony at the White House to welcome the appointment of a new joint chief of staff for the US military, Obama broke from his prepared schedule to say Awlaki’s death was a major blow to America’s enemies and condemned him as a dangerous terrorist. “He repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda,” Obama said. Awlaki is credited with inspiring or directing at least four plots against the US in recent years, three of which were unsuccessful – a shooting inside the Fort Hood military base, the failed Times Square bombing, the failed underwear bomber, and a parcel bomb hidden inside a printer that also failed to explode inside a passenger jet. The administration avoided giving details of the strike with experts saying they clearly feared further complicating their complex relations with Yemen. At a White House briefing spokesman Jay Carney dodged questions about the legality of the assassination and details of the US’s involvement. Nor would he confirm Khan’s death or how the bodies were identified. Asked if the White House would publish evidence that Awlaki was “operationally involved” in terrorism, Charney said: “Again, this is — the question is — makes us – you know, has embedded within it assumptions about the circumstances of his death that I’m just not going to address.” Awlaki’s exact role in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is much debated by security analysts: some claim he had a senior operational role, others say he had a more informal relationship, and some reports said he was at odds with the established leaders of the group. His key role, both locally and internationally, was as a propagandist and inspiration to potential terrorist operators. The bespectacled and bushy-bearded cleric usually appeared in videos dressed in traditional Yemeni long robe, headscarf and tribal dagger, but he spoke in conversational American English. With his native English and grasp of Western culture, Awlaki was able to make the often esoteric worlds of radical Islamist theology and Middle Eastern politics accessible and understable to a new audience in Europe and American, introducing political arguments more familiar to listeners who may have had limited understanding of their professed faith. Awlaki was also linked to failed plots to target British and European interests, according to security officials. The attempted murder of the MP Stephen Timms was inspired by Awlaki’s sermons, and a British Airways employee, Rajib Karim, was convicted in February of plotting attacks against the airline. Awlaki was born in New Mexico in 1971 to Yemeni parents who took him back to Yemen after early childhood. He returned to the US in 1991 to attend college. US authorities believe he came into contact with at least two of the 9/11 hijackers while giving sermons at a San Diego mosque. He is believed to have been killed at 9.55am on Friday morning at a site 90 miles (140km) east of Sana’a between the provinces of Marib and al-Jawf in what is believed to have been an air strike. Few details have been released about the strike – not least because the Obama administration is wary of further destabilising the embattled regime of Yemeni president Ali Abdulla Saleh. But witnesses say that Awlaki was boarding a 2005 Toyota Hilux along with five other supporters when the US drone attack hit the vehicle. Initial reports suggest that it was the drone was operated by the CIA, working alongside the US joint special operations command team that directed the Osama bin Laden assassination. The death of Awlaki is the most significant blow to the al-Qaida organisation since Bin Laden was assassinated in May. He was one of the few senior operatives orientated to western ways, and in recent years had become increasingly strident in his calls for Muslims to wage jihad against the US. The CIA and the US military have used drones to target al-Qaida officials in Yemen and had placed Awlaki near the top of a hit list. Yemeni officials initially said they were not yet sure who had killed him. However, they released details of the killing within several hours of it happening, suggesting that Sana’a was either directly involved or well-briefed by the US. Perhaps mindful of the difficult circumstances in Yemen, Obama was careful to praise the country’s involvement in the strike and stress that Islamic militants have carried out many attacks in Yemen. “Awlaki and his organization have been directly responsible for the deaths of many Yemeni citizens,” he said. “His hateful ideology and targeting of innocent civilians has been rejected by the vast majority of Muslims and people of all faiths, and he has met his demise because the government and the people of Yemen have joined the international community in a common effort against al-Qaida.” In a comment piece for the Guardian , former general Wesley Clark said Alwaki’s “death makes his final legacy a proof of the effectiveness of America’s active defense against terrorists.” Would-be Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry praised Obama and the US military for the death of “American-raised al Qaida leader.” But not all reaction was positive. The campaign to take out Alwaki has been criticised by some as a worrying development where the US government can undertake to kill a US citizen without any form of trial. Republican presidential candidate, libertarian-leaning congressman Ron Paul, spoke out against the attack. “Nobody knows if he [Awlaki] ever killed anybody,” Paul said after a political event in New Hampshire where he is currently campaigning. “If the American people accept this blindly and casually … I think that’s sad,” he added. Paul is a long-standing critic of American foreign policy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American Civil Liberties Union also condemned the attack. The organisation, which campaigns on legal and human rights issues, put out a strongly-worded statement saying the strike was a clear violation of both US and international law. “This is a programme under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public, but from the courts,” said ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer. He added: “It is a mistake to invest the president – any president – with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems to present a threat to the country.” Anwar al-Awlaki al-Qaida Yemen United States Global terrorism Middle East Martin Chulov Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
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While I was growing up, October meant my birthday and my mom’s homemade Halloween costumes. When I was 21, it became the month Mom found a lump in her breast. The year I turned 23, it was the month I lost my mother to inflammatory breast cancer. When I was first diagnosed with cancer back in 2006, I have to admit that it was initially a very lonely experience. I knew that my family loved me and would help me through it, but I knew I would have to handle what it would do to me on my own and I wasn’t sure what that would entail. They say that you are born alone (although, as a mother, I would argue that point) and that you leave this world alone. I just want to say that after that initial moment of hearing my diagnosis, I have never felt alone again. My mom wrote those words on April 22, 2009. Six months later, on October 29, 2009, she became one of the approximately 39, 500 women in the United States to die from breast cancer each year. Every October, much of America is draped in pink for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But it’s not enough to purchase pink kitchen appliances, flip flops, or keychains; we need to look beyond the ribbon and have honest, open talks with the people we love living with this disease. My mom’s lasting gift to her daughters, family and friends was making cancer something you could talk about. She wrote about her journey through breast cancer on a journal she created on CaringBridge.org, a site created for people battling serious illnesses to share the stories. When someone we love is sick, the things we’d ask before — “how are you?” — or confide to them — “I had a bad day at work today” — seem inadequate or inappropriate. For my mother, enabling people to say these small things was to continue to be the woman she was before her diagnosis. When up against an illness that threatens so many outward signs of womanhood — the ability to bear children, if the chemo causes you to go through menopause prematurely, as it did my mother; your curves, and often your breasts; even your eyelashes and eyebrows — my mother maintained her core identity as a wife, a mom, a funny, loving friend, and a confidante. Mom was a “talker” before she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, and her gift of telling stories and connecting with people helped her stare down a disease that takes away far too many women each year. And she refused to go down quietly. Writing in her journal, my mother explained her reasons for recording her experiences: My humorous take on all things cancer is my way of dealing with this illness. I would like to make people comfortable enough to ask questions and to demystify … this disease. It needs to have a spotlight pointed at it so it can be seen for what it is and then creep back into dark corners like the cockroach it is (sorry, guess I should have had that second cup of coffee, after all). Know that I love you all and my wish for you is that you always stay strong and never lose faith. Love, Linda Humor became a weapon in her battle to remain herself while lightening the load on hardworking physical therapists, helpful family members, doctors, and her fellow patients lined up in waiting rooms for treatment. Here’s what she had to say after major sugery: Well, I haven’t decided what pajamas I will be wearing for the red carpet on Sunday when I watch the annual Academy Awards. And here are a few more of her reflections: In January, I scheduled an appointment with a local orthopedic specialist named Dr. Wack (would I make this stuff up?) and I told him I have a history with doctors with unusual names going back thirty-some years, when I had all my wisdom teeth removed by Dr. Payne. When I went to see my oncologist yesterday afternoon and went in for my vitals to be taken, I experienced something that I have never felt in all my years on this planet. I was overjoyed that I had gained a few pounds since last week! It was a Bridget Jones’ Diary entry in reverse! Today I will be having a visit from a physical therapist who will be putting me through my paces. I hope she has forgiven me my question during her last visit. I’m afraid I asked her if she had ever been a Marine. Mom wrote and talked about cancer like it was just this thing she was handling, refusing to let it stop her from doing the things that meant the most to her. Mom had a mastectomy two months before I graduated from college but was in the stands supporting me as I received my diploma. Her femur was replaced with a titanium rod when her breast cancer spread to her bones and compromised her ability to walk, yet she still traveled, five months later, to visit my sister Morgan in Germany, hiking up hilly terrain with a cane until the effects of the chemo caught up with her and she was forced to use a wheelchair, which my sister pushed to the sites they wanted to see together. Through all of this, Mom kept writing, because she was determined that nothing, absolutely nothing, could keep her from being around for as long as possible for her daughters: The first weekend I told the girls about my cancer in 2006, we went up to my bedroom and tried on scarves and hats for my upcoming new look when I would lose my hair during chemo. We also tried this new look on Winston, our Jack Russell, and Chuck took pictures of us. We named the pictures ‘All for One, One for All.’ … My girls lessened my sense of unease and I hope they will always remember that scary stuff isn’t quite so scary when you can laugh about it. In her last months of life, Mom told me she was writing something about cancer that she thought could help other people who were sick feel less alone. After we got home from the hospice the day we lost her, I searched frantically through her computer, through the drawers of meticulously labeled correspondence, searching for a last message from Mom. The only thing I found? A one-page outline for an intended screenplay she never began. I was heartbroken. It was then I realized I already had so much of my mother already recorded in her funny, inescapably Mom voice: her journal, the place where she spoke about what the chemo felt like in her veins, the place she wrote tributes to and thanked the people that drove her to countless treatments, and the place she made all of us laugh, even though we were aching at the thought of losing her. Writing in her journal on April 22, 2009, Mom quoted a line from one of her favorite movies, “Waking Ned Devine,” showing how her journal had become not just a way to keep a big family up-to-date, but a lifeline: ‘What a wonderful thing it would be to visit your own funeral, to sit up at the front, and hear what was said. Maybe say a few things yourself.’ I realize after reading messages on this website, and notes and cards — that I do not have to wonder about the wonderful people around me and what they would say. I feel as though I have been given a great gift. Mom didn’t get to speak at her own funeral, but she sure as hell got to say some things about cancer. Whenever I reach for the phone and realize I can’t call her, I reread her entries and am reminded of her courage, her humor, and her love for life. Mom wrote about choosing lupine flowers for her blog’s background over the pink breast cancer ribbon theme expected of her. I always believed it was a nod to a book she read to my sister and me when we were little, “Miss Rumphius,” the story of a little girl who goes out to make the world more beautiful and achieves this as an old woman by spreading her beloved flowers around the globe. In her post, Mom made a joke about having trouble growing lupines, and hoping that “wasn’t a bad omen.” The last photo taken of me with my mother is of us standing in front of our childhood home with my little sister. Mom has a pink hat covering her head, once again hairless as an infant’s from chemo. But behind us, Mom’s lupines rise up as tall as our waists, and they grow back bigger and more beautiful every year. If you or a loved one is going through breast cancer and you’d like to share what makes them “more than a pink ribbon,” respond to us here or on Twitter @HuffPostWomen with the hashtag #morethanpink
Continue reading …Canadian News Magazine Hints ‘Obamamisery’ Could Cause ‘The End of Obama’
September 30, 2011 No Comment
The Canadian news magazine Macleans is not a conservative publication. It actually published a cover in 2007
Continue reading …Bailed-Out, Not Lending, Not Paying Taxes, Rolling in Profits, US Parasitic BofA’s New $5 Fee
September 30, 2011 No CommentIn other words, it’s absolutely a given that Bank of America not only retain its current profit margin, it should be able to grow it off the backs of their overburdened customers . Free markets rock! The nation’s beleaguered banking industry, which has been raising fees and doing away with free services, has a new target: debit-card users. Bank of America Corp. is laying plans to charge millions of customers a $5 monthly fee to use their debit cards , and other big banks are expected to follow suit. The industry says it needs the fees to recoup revenue it will lose because of new government regulations that cap what they can charge merchants for debit-card transactions. Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank by assets, disclosed the plan on Thursday in a memo to its senior staff. It intends to begin collecting the fees nationwide early next year. Several other large banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., are testing or plan to test similar fees in some states. Regions Financial Corp., a Birmingham, Ala.-based lender, has said it will start charging a $4 monthly debit-card usage fee on certain accounts on Oct. 1. New federal limits on debit-card “swipe fees” are expected to cost U.S. banks an estimated $6.6 billion a year in lost revenue. To offset that lost revenue, many banks have eliminated or scaled back debit-rewards programs, added monthly fees for checking accounts and raised minimum balance requirements for customers to avoid certain fees. The limits on debit-card swipe fees—one of the most contentious regulations to arise from the financial crisis—were finalized by the Federal Reserve Board in June and take effect on Saturday. The new rules will cap at 24 cents the fee merchants pay banks each time a customer buys something with a debit card, down from the current average of 44 cents. The rules apply to banks with $10 billion and more in assets. Bank of America has said it expects the caps, which the industry lobbied against for months, to erase $2 billion in revenue annually. “The economics of offering a debit card have changed with recent regulations,” a spokeswoman for Bank of America said Thursday. What to do? Move your money. Check out where the community banks in your area are here .
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For Mawmaw & Pawpaw Tiny Desk Kitchen: What The Heck Is A Pawpaw? The Pawpaw Fruit Foraging For America s Forgotten Fruit 720p HD SustainMizzou says: There’s plenty of these in Missouri! Via @ nprnews : The Pawpaw : Foraging For America’s Forgotten Fruit http://t.co/qS2z9o5R
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