Every day, millions of Americans stand at store checkout counters and make a seemingly random decision: after swiping their debit card, they choose whether to punch in a code, or to sign their name.
It is a pointless distinction to most consumers, since the price is the same either way. But behind the scenes, billions of dollars are at stake.
When you sign a debit card receipt at a large retailer, the store pays your bank an average of 75 cents for every $100 spent, more than twice as much as when you punch in a four-digit code.
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[S]ignature debit cards dominate debit use in this country, accounting for 61 percent of all such transactions, even though PIN debit cards are less expensive and less vulnerable to fraud.
Got that so far? Punch in a PIN, a 30c charge. Sign your name, 75c. multiplied by millions and millions and millions over decades. How, you ask, did they do it - besides hiding from consumers how much extra it was costing them to sign their names?
Keep reading: http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2010/01/the-visa-credit-card-scam.html#more
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Democrats are doomed...doomed!
That's only a slight exaggeration of the media's reaction to recent announcements that a couple of top Democrats won't seek reelection. It's a sign that the electorate is down on Democrats, we're told. That Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd would retire, rather than lose reelection, reflects every election in every state and district. Democrats are clearly doomed. Doomed!
"You will certainly hear a lot of talk from Republicans that Democrats are beginning to face the reality of just how tough the current political landscape looks for them and they are running for the hills," ABC's David Chalian writes.
Yeah, you certainly will. But Republicans say a lot of things and anyone who's been paying attention knows that the things they say are about 97% BS.
Faux Nooze: scared stiff Dems are abandoning the fascist commie's sinking ship!! Bwaahahahaha!
Reality: really. Well then, what does it mean that all those repukes are leaving office?
Faux: :: crickets ::
According to CQPolitics.com, seven Republicans have announced that they will not seek re-election in 2010 and are not intending to run for a different public office. Those Republicans are Sens. George LeMieux, Jim Bunning, Judd Gregg, George Voinovich, Kit Bond, and Reps. George Radanovich and Henry E. Brown. Moreover, 14 other Republicans are vacating their seats to run for another office, such as dogcatcher and Walmart Greeter.And in the latest signs of trouble for President Barack Obama...
Bob Barr defends the Prez, calls Cheney et al "asinine".
Ron Paul says the teabaggers are inconsequential douchewads.
Michael Steele tells critics from his own party to STFU.
Oh, and Democrat Richard Blumenthal is CRUSHING the republican candidates running for Dodd's Senate seat.
Mike Parry, a GOP candidate for the state senate, has apologized for tweets calling President Obama a "Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man" and asking "whats with the Dems and Pedophiles?"
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Today, the University of California at Davis confirmed that a housecat had H1N1 influenza.
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Japanese whaling ship rams Sea Shepherd vessel: http://www.americablog.com/2010/01/better-video-footage-of-japanese.html
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What Snowe and Collins got for Mainers: No public option and a 22.9% increase in premiums.
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A lawsuit filed against investment bank Goldman Sachs by a shareholder alleges that the company spent more money on corporate bonuses than it earned in 2008.
Shareholder Ken Brown's lawsuit is one of two suits filed against the company this week over its controversial decision to hand out billions of dollars in bonuses even after it was accused of playing a central role in the financial collapse of 2008 and receiving $10 billion in direct aid from the US government.A lawsuit filed against investment bank Goldman Sachs by a shareholder alleges that the company spent more money on corporate bonuses than it earned in 2008.
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For murder, three-tenths of one percent of revenues .... "Two sources with inside knowledge of Blackwater's settlement with Iraqi victims of a string of shootings, including the Nisour Square massacre, have confirmed to me that Blackwater is paying $100,000 for each of the Iraqis killed by its forces and between $20-30,000 to each Iraqi wounded. One source said it was "an absolute bargain" for Blackwater. Based on the number of dead and injured named in the civil lawsuits, the total amount paid by Blackwater is likely in the range of $5 million. Blackwater has made more than $1.5 billion in "security" contracts in Iraq alone since 2003."
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Not that Big Coal and its pet politicians care about science, but ....
The evidence is in, and the facts are irrefutable:
Scientific evidence that mountaintop-removal coal mining destroys streams and threatens human health is so strong that government should stop granting new permits for it, a group of 12 environmental scientists report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.The consequences of this mining in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southwestern Virginia are "pervasive and irreversible," the article finds. Companies are required by law to take steps to reduce the damages, but their efforts don't compensate for lost streams nor do they prevent lasting water pollution, it says.
The article is a summary of recent scientific studies of the consequences of blasting the tops off mountains to obtain coal and dumping the excess rock into streams in valleys. The authors also studied new water-quality data from West Virginia streams and found that mining polluted them, reducing their biological health and diversity.
SNIP
The Science article cites a number of potential health risks from removing mountaintops and filling in valleys, including contaminated well water, toxic dust and fish that are tainted with the chemical selenium. It also looked at environmental damage to the mining and fill areas and to streams below them.
"The reason we're willing to make a policy recommendation is that the evidence is so clear-cut," said Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland, the lead author of the Science study and a specialist on the ecology of streams.
None of this is news. Anyone who lives in the shadow of mountaintop removal eats, drinks and breathes this truth every day.
But in Kentucky - and most of Appalachian coal country for that matter - neither science nor facts can prevail where schools replace microscopes with bibles, and enriching alien corporations is more important than protecting at-risk children, and the only laws that rule are those in leviticus.
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The Environmental Protection Agency "proposed the nation's strictest-ever smog limits" yesterday. The new proposal calls for restricting the ground-level ozone concentration to between 60 and 70 parts per billion, which is a sharp decline from the 75 parts per billion standard that was used under President Bush.
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States 'with the most to gain under health care reform are overwhelmingly represented by Republicans'
On the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky highlights a new study in Health Affairs that shows how misguided — and political — Republican lawmakers' opposition to health reform legislation is. "States with the most to gain under health care reform are overwhelmingly represented by Republicans, while those states likely to do worse are much more likely to have Democratic senators," conclude the study's authors. From their findings:
[T]he states most likely to "win" as a result of health care reform are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah. All of these states have a relatively high number of uninsured and all are in the bottom half of states in terms of cost under both financing mechanisms. … Among the states most likely to "lose" are Delaware, Nebraska, and New Hampshire as well as the District of Columbia. Each of these states has a relatively lower-than-average proportion of uninsured residents, and each would fall in the "High Cost" category under either of the financing options. There are four states — Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, and Rhode Island — that while also "Low Benefit" are "Low Cost" as well.
Volsky writes that "if Senators and Representatives dropped their ideological allegiance and voted to advance the interests of their constituents, the health care reform effort would actually attract bipartisan support."
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Re-Elect John McCain Because He Was Tortured! http://wonkette.com/413085/re-elect-john-mccain-because-he-was-tortured#more-413085
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The world is literally her oyster
Why would Sarah Palin speak at one big convention but not another?
This sure is queer. Sarah Palin has announced that she will speak at the upcoming National Tea Party Convention but will not speak at or even attend its sudden rival, CPAC. You could argue that it's because the older, more established CPAC will probably not be quite as insane a "National Tea Party Convention," but let's not split hairs: they'll both be magnificently nightmarish spectacles of torture and sadness. (The friggin John Birch Society is co-sponsoring CPAC this year, remember?) What could it be then? Hmm, long-shot here, but maybe Palin's particular convention choices have something to do with the fact that the Tea Partiers will pay her a $100,000 fee, while CPAC does not pay any fees — or as their spokesperson calls them, "honorariums." Who knew CPAC was so Soviet? Washington Independent
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Where are they now?
Family Values
Former Bush administration Deputy Counsel John Michael Farren is enjoying his calmer, post-political private sector life in Connecticut so much that last night he just went ahead and beat the crap out of his wife with a flashlight before trying to strangle her to death and ultimately kill himself. PROBLEM HOWEVER: both he and his wife are still alive! Farren is currently being held on $3 million bail, which is so much money. He appears to have been in the Bush White House's second salary bracket, so… eh, not gonna cut it. Greenwich Time
Well, at least there wasn't a gay hooker involved this time.
That we know of.
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Quisling turd rat bastard, and all around self-serving schmuck, Traitor Joe Lieberman, is officially hated. Everywhere. By Everyone. In Every Party. And even the Independents hate him.
At least according to Public Policy Polling (PDF link):
Raleigh, N.C. – Joe Lieberman's actions on the health care bill antagonized constituents both for and against it, and in the wake of that he finds his approval rating at just 25% with 67% of voters in the state disapproving of him.
Lieberman has hit a low point with Democrats usually reserved for Republican politicians, with 81% of them disapproving of him to just 14% happy with his performance. Republicans give him bad marks by a 48/39 margin and independents do so by a 61/32 spread.
It's clear that his actions on the Senate health care bill have made a large contribution to his falling popularity. 68% of voters say they disagree with how he handled the issue to just 19% giving him support. Among people who support the health care bill 84% say they disapprove of Lieberman's actions but even among those opposed to the initiative 52% say they disagree with how Lieberman handled himself.
"Joe Lieberman isn't popular enough with the Democrats or the Republicans to receive their nomination for the Senate in 2012. And since the independents don't like him much these days either it's hard to see how he'll be around for another term."
– Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling
