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Wow – been a while.

I hate banks.  I hate bankers, I think when the glorious peoples revolution comes, they should be the first ones against the wall. (just kidding–sortof)

I think we should nationalize the banks, because as inept as the federal government can be it’s a simple equation:

inept != evil

Anyone who follows me on twitter (both of you) know that I’ve had a btt of a border skirmish going on with my local bank. (Well there’s no such thing as ‘my local bank’ anymore is there – my “local” bank is based out of Buffalo, NY)

I’ve been banking with Merchants and Traders “M&T” Bank (www.mtb.com) since they acquired my last bank, Provident.  I’ve also been planning to leave for some time yet, but it hadn’t reached danger level yet.

I loved Provident, best customer service ever, convenient branches, Sunday hours, and a branch where I could walk in and EVERYONE there knew me.  You know, like Cheers, only serving money instead of bad beer.

All good things must end. M&T bought them, they called it a merger, but it wasn’t. There is nothing left of the bank I was so happy with. Customer service is gone, my local branch is closing, and no more Sunday hours (and severely curtailed saturday hours – what’s the point of being open for 3 hours – seems like a waste of a lot of paperwork?)

M&T is also closing up half it’s branches in Virginia, Maryland, and DC, in fact in my area there is now a 40 mile radius without a branch, which would force me to drive 20 miles in any direction to find a place to drop a damned check off.  They’re laying off employees and cutting branch hours.

This is the picture of a bank in trouble mind you.

So the *whole* story.

About two months ago, I got a call from the branch manager of my branch. Seems when the account was opened the agent who helped me forgot to get me to sign a piece of paper.

I signed the paper – end of story, right?

Nope, another month goes by and I get an illiterately written letter from my branch manager, but suspiciously not signed. In approximately 10 days my account was to be closed.

That very same day I walked the letter into the branch and quite literally said “what the fuck?”. (For added effect, I wrote it on the bottom of the letter.)

The teller explained to me that it’s a minor oversight, that corporate probably didn’t get the signed form (that I signed) and that it was nothing to worry about.  Mike (the manager) would take care of it first thing the next morning.

When asked what to do about the letter, I was told to…”Ignore it – if you don’t hear from us everything is ok.”  (**WARNING** never depend on negative notification when something bad might happen – lesson learned.)

April 15th – I get paid, deposit my paycheck in said account and go online and schedule online payments for some of the larger bills and more pressing bills to get them out of the way.  I always schedule bill payments at the receiving site, not the sending site.  Bank of America cured me of that habit.

April 16th comes along, the day the letter said my account was to be closed.  All is good.  Bought lunch and something stupid or another, debit card works wonderfully.

April 17th.  Nothing.  NO letter, no notice nothing.  I go to use my card…DECLINED.  I log into web banking (since I have other accounts I can still GET to web banking) and the account was closed and over 3100.00 was withdrawn.

I call customer service.  Fat lot of good they do, they are great at helping you transfer funds or look up a check, when pressed with the question “Where’s my fucking money.” you get a lot of blank stares with foreign accents.

So I spend the weekend stressed.  I can’t get a hold of the companies with whom I’ve scheduled bill payments until Monday, by which point the payments have already been attempted.  Not to mention that to this point, NO ONE CAN TELL ME WHERE MY MONEY IS.  The best answer I got is that it must have been withdrawn at the branch. (Lie #1)

Monday I call the bank and spoke directly to the branch manager, who I’ve had a pretty good relationship with up until now.  “No problem, we’ll get it worked out and get the account re-opened for you.”  (Lie #2)  “I’ll call you this afternoon when it’s done.” (Lie #3)

Tuesday I call the bank “I’m having trouble getting a-hold of the person who closed the account, she’s the one who has to re-open it” (Warning – maybe Lie #4) “I’ll call you before 3pm and let you know where it stands.” (Lie #5)

Tuesday at 6pm (branch closes at 7) I call the bank.  Ask for Mike, teller tells me he’s with a customer and can she have him call me back.  “No thanks, I’ll hold.” -my response.

She comes back and again, tells me that he’s still with a customer, but that my problem is being worked on (Lie #6), and that he’ll call me back in the morning.  -WRONG-  I tell her this can’t wait for morning and thank you, but I’ll hold.

Mike gets on the phone and tells me:

* It’s absolutely their fault for losing the paperwork in the first place (working on getting that in writing)

* corporate is unable  (refusing) to re-open the account

* a check is being cut as we speak

* I can expect it in 5-7 business days

Now mind you that 5 days have already gone by since the day they stole my money.  I’m supposed to wait another week to ten days?  (unlike banks, I measure time as it passes, not what it looks like on a fucking calendar)

I don’t fucking think so.  Tonight I’m drafting a warrant-in-debt.  In virginia it only costs $35 to file a lawsuit and you don’t need a lawyer to do it.

I’m thinking a few extra thousand for putting me through this, the damage to my perfect payment history with my mortgage company, etc. are all in order.   (I’ve re-scheduled the payment from a different account, if they don’t close *THAT* one I should be good)  I’m lucky in that it happened during a time when it’s not a life-or-death problem for me.

Because *THEN* you’d be reading about me somewhere else.  You put my kids at risk there will be more than words.

Banks can #suckit

A while ago I posted the following to Twitter:

“If you surround yourself with people who think exactly like you, you’ll never learn anything.”

Apparently the concept was fairly well received, it got Re-Tweeted at least 4 times that I could count.

I live in North-Central Virginia. A little to far north to be hicksville, a little too far south to have actual culture.

What I’ve found, being surrounded as I am by republicans is this. People vote republican for the following reasons.

1. Self Interest – Most republican voters I’ve met are concerned with how government affects them personally. Not them as a neighborhood or them as a species, but them personally. They all want to see stuff done, but to a one, none of them wants to put ten cents into the pool to do it. These are the people who are against universal health care based on the cost to them. Never mind the benefit of having a healthier, more productive, less-expensive-to-maintain population. They’re fine with that so long as a dime doesn’t come out of their pockets to make it happen.

2. Theology. The Republican part has done a pretty good job of aligning itself with the Religious among us. Which is funny because the whole notion that is put across by the party that “This country was formed on a Christian foundation” is complete fabrication. This country was founded by a bunch of Diests, among these, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and some guy by the name of George Washington.  (They were also Freemasons)

It’s hilarious to think that the *ONLY* reason the republican party caters to the religious is because there isn’t a snowballs chance in hell they could win an election without them.  It’s pure pandering, and the religious conservatives sell out cheap.  All you have to do is throw gay-marriage or abortion into a speech and they’re all over it.  Nevermind that everything ELSE they believe in goes against everything that religion is supposed to stand for.  You know, like bombing women and children back to the stone-age.

2. Committment to “Small Government” – This is where the conflict comes to light.  Republicans are comitted to “Small government” but yet the l influence of corporate interests and the military-industrial-complex on the republican party forces it in exactly the other direction.   When National Defense is included (as it should be, it’s the largest government orginization there is) the size of our government actually shrank during the clinton years, In fact, the last two major Civilian Federal departments were created during republican administrations.  The EPA was created in 1990 by George H.W. Bush, and the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002 as a reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. *

3. Committment to “Minimal Government Intervention in Citizens’ lives” – This is another place where the rhetoric doesn’t match the actions.  This would preclude the government from getting involved in causes like Abortion & Same-Sex Marriage, where this time the religious right push the party off it’s true message.  Abortion and Gay Marriage should be up to the states to decide, but more and more often you’re finding idiot “republicans” calling for constitutional amendments to solidify their palce.  Now this annoys me because the Constitution is really a remarkable document, and it was truly a great set of rules 200 years ago when this country was first formed.

To introduce such idiocy into such a remarkable document would forever make us a laughing stock. (the mere suggestion of consitutionalizing a ban on gay marriage has ALREADY put is on that path.)

* Federal spending actually rose at adramatically much slower rate during the Clinton administration (1992 – 2000).  (Federal Spending actually went from 1.4 Trillion to 1.7 Trillion during the Clinton Administration, but went from 1.7 Trillion to 3.1 Trillion during the bush years.

At the end of the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour”, Jeff, Larry, Ron, and Bill play a sort of game.  They each say something that they believe.

Given who they are it’s usually *REALLY* funny.   My favorite is one from Jeff Foxworthy (used, as usual, without permission)

“I believe that when someone jumps in front of you on the freeway and they don’t give you that little one-handed wave in the rearview-mirror, that it should be legal for you to get up under ‘em, break ‘em free, and put ‘em into the wall.”

I decided today that I would write down the things I believe.  Not that anyone cares.

I believe that we we spend too much money trying to make tobacco safer.  I believe that instead we should be making it MORE dangerous.  Hell I think one cigarette out of ever pack should be rendered absolutely lethal.  This introduces an element of fun into smoking, every pack comes with a free game of russian roulette.

I believe that anyone willing to die for god should be given the opportunity to do so.  Immediately, without hesitation.  I’m sure that the nutcases willing to kill in the name of god will be willing to volunteer for the job.

I believe that anyone who actually wants the job of President of the United States (or any country really) should be immediately and irrevocably barred from holding the position.  The job itself holds too much temptation for the power-hungry.

I believe that anyone not willing to pay the taxes required to support their community should be allowed to opt out.  I believe the next time the fire-department is summoned to their home that alternate payment should be made in advance.  No checks, cash only please.

I believe that the difference between a “protest” and a “revolution” is merely committment and a matter of scale.  If the riot police are enough to turn you away, then you really didn’t want it enough anyway.

I believe that anyone who thinks sex is “bad” or “immoral” or “indecent” should immediately be banned from having any.  Ever.

I’ll continue this later..  I believe my lunch is here. 

Oh, and I believe that Michael Jackson gave up any claim to “greatness” the first time he paid $20+ Million to keep the family of a child quiet.

Banking News Article

Ask? I’m glad we’re being so polite about it.  While we’re at it why don’t we serve tea to the bastards to single-handled tanked our economy and put millions out of work.

I think as AIG’s principal shareholders I think it’s our duty to DEMAND the return of OUR money.

I posted this in response to the above article, but felt it needed to be said again:

“I think it’s time to move beyond trying to make sure they don’t do wrong with the money and actually start INVESTIGATING them for their crimes.

I don’t understand how you can pay a retention bonus, or any kind of bonus for that matter, to a group of people who single-handedly took advantage of every loophole allowed to them to drive our economy right into the tank.

Even now, when we’re teetering on the brink, these idiots are padding their own pockets and the pockets of the very people who got us into this.

The banks take massive amounts of taxpayer bailout money and don’t put a dime of it back into the economy in the form of new lines of credit or extensions to existing lines, they are, to this day, sitting on the money or using it to expand THEIR empires.

These people are criminals and should be treated as such. Take them out back and check their prostates with a cattle-prod. It’s just as painful as what they’ve done to us.”

And why isn’t more being written about her (and her husband’s) membership in the Alaska Independance Party?  This is not “Independants” this is “Independance”.  This is a party who moves every few years to try and get Alaska broken off from the United States.

Isn’t that treason?

Why isn’t anyone asking this question?  I can’t be the only one who has noticed this.

if you live in a toilet-bowl, you have to expect the occasional flush.

I have no pity.

A few of the possible taglines I’m proposing for their campaign.

Another:   McCain/Palin – Because he’s too ugly to make it on his own.

Or:  McCain/Palin – Putting a 2nd place beauty queen a heartbeat from the presidency.

I’m still not quite sure what to make of John McCain’s pick for a running mate, but given what I *HAVE* found out about sarah palin, I’m quite sure he’s already regretting his choice.  From investigations into her own administratiion’s misuse of public funds, abuses of power like having her ex-brother-in-law fired from his government job, or even just the fact that a pro-life, pro-religion self-described “hockey-mom” can’t even teach her 17-year-old daughter about the perils of unplanned pregnancy.  Is this someone we need one 77 year old heartbeat away from the presidency?

My theories on his pick are as follows:

1. He’s desparately trying to win over the Hillary Clinton supporters who think that a woman should be in the white-house irregardless of her actual qualifications for the job.  (He’s done his best to prove that he doesn’t look at qualifications at all, which is cool.  Maybe I *DO* have a shot at the Secretary of State job)
2. He’s desparately trying to show how ‘young’ and ‘with-it’ he is.  (Hint: He’s not)
3. He’s looking for a replacement for Cindy. (Actually this was my wife’s suggestion)
4. He was trying to do something that would throw the Obama camp for a loop.  (It did – no one expected such a stupid move, even for him.)
5. Senile-Dementia kicking in.

Or the most probable reason.  The RNC picked her for him.  I’ve long since postulated that the RNC knows this election is in the trash, and they’re putting McCain/Palin out there so they have someone to blame when they lose.  They can say “it’s all his/her fault” and go on from there.  It’s the only thing that explains Mitt Romney pulling out when he did, because by all accounts he still had a chance when he bowed out.

I still think McCain is an idiot.  While there was a time, back in 2000, when I would have voted for him, his willingness to roll over and become Bush’s lap-dog killed any chance he had of ever gaining favor in my camp.

Principal’s outing of gay student roils Fla. town

Ok – I think that this fuck-nut needs to have a world of cyber-hurt brought down on him.  Send him an email (address is below) and let him know.

Seems what when a high-school senior went to her principal because she was being harassed about being a lesbian, he started a campaign of harassment himself, including telling her that homosexuality is wrong, and suspending her friends for protesting her treatment.

So the ACLU sued, and he was demoted.  Now he teaches American Government.  You’d think the idiot would know as a Government teacher that you can’t discriminate against someone on the basis of their sexual orientation.  It’s protected.

Here’s the offender’s email address:

So send him an email and remind him that despite his most fervent wishes, we still live in a free country.

If he doesn’t like it, maybe he should consider emmigrating.  There are many theocracies out there for him to choose from.