Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Cheats, Lies, and Letters from Citi

Like millions of others I received a letter from Citi in early December saying in zero-point type that my interest rate was going to leap sky-high unless I wrote or called Citi.

What would you guess the percentage to be of letter recipients who called? Or wrote? Two percent? Likely too high. How many even read the letters? Citi counts on recipients’ failure to act, I'll bet.

I called immediately and told Citi that “nope,” I was not amenable to its high rate and I wanted to cancel the card immediately.

Whoa, buster! Do you know what it takes to cancel a credit card? Try about 45 minutes, that’s all, after you talk with Yaseen, Tanish, Hammad, and Jamaal who urge you to terminate termination and if you terminate termination, Citi promised to reduce my interest rate. Imagine!

After wheedling the rate down to 3.99% (and I do believe I could have gotten Citi down further had I kept pushing which occurred to me ex post facto), we hung up.

Well, la de da, can you imagine the shock and surprise which grabbed me when I opened an envelope from Citi about 10 days later, and, hang on, the interest rate was not 3.99%, but 11.99%. Oh, me. Silly error!

I suppose Citi thought I might ignore this envelope, too.

I slashed and burned the telephone wires to reach the bleeping (thanks, Patrick) Citi again.

“Oh, no, no, no, Ms. Patricia, we did not mean for it to be 11.99%, but you are supposed to receive 3.99%,” said Aamir, one of Citi’s 10,234, 532 employees in India.

“Then why does it say 11.99%?” I asked.

“Oh, oh. We will make that change right away,” Aamir said.

I asked Aamir to tell me the date of my earlier marathon discussion with Citi.

“Oh, Ms. Patricia, it was December 6,” Aamir said, reading the record.

“Isn’t that odd that my letter from Citi which changed my interest rate to 11.99% rather than 3.99% is dated December 6?” I said.

It pays to read your mail. It pays to scream and yell. It pays to be able to walk away, Renee, from the liars and cheats that your U.S. government handsomely rewards for malfeasance.

Rejected by Sen. Webb and Cong. Moran

Interesting, isn’t it, that almost identical letters from Sen. James Webb (D-VA) and Congressman James Moran (D-VA) arrive on the same day, rejecting my request for Inauguration tickets?

Who put the wording of the letters together? Better still, who gets the tickets? Sadly, my 24-year-old son serving in the Army, a young skeptic, said to me: “Mom, their cronies get the tickets.”

Will the offices release the names of the ticket holders? If not, why not? Why doesn’t the MSM write about that? Huh? Huh? Write about seats the MSM gets? Are you kidding?

Here is most of the wording:


Thank you for contacting Senator Webb's office regarding Inauguration tickets. As you may know, the Senator's office has received more than 35,000 total ticket requests and has been allotted only a few hundred tickets. (Who gets them?) Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to accommodate your request for tickets to the Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol. However, please note that the remaining sections of the National Mall will be open to members of the public who were unable to obtain the limited tickets available. (Now isn't that sweet? On the Mall with 4 million others!)

We wanted to give you this status update well in advance of Inauguration Day so that you can plan accordingly. (Oh yeah? What am I supposed to do? Set up camp on the mall for three weeks? You think the Park Service and Secret Service will okay my plans?) Please also be aware that in addition to the public viewing area on the National Mall, there are a number of events during the week, including the Inaugural Parade, that do not require tickets. (Oh boy! I'll get to see the parade upfront and right on the Avenue! I wish.)

Due to the extraordinarily high interest in the Swearing-In Ceremony, Senator Webb has sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, requesting additional tickets to account for Virginia's proximity to Washington D.C. Should Senator Webb receive additional tickets from the Inaugural Committee or any other source and be able to accommodate your request, we will be sure to let you know. (You mean I have another chance? I am waiting in the wings, Senator Webb. Thank you!)

The Swearing-In Ceremony is the only Inaugural event to which our office has received tickets. Please see the links below for updated information on other Inaugural events that may interest you.


Senator Webb and Congressman Moran: Who got your tickets? Inquiring minds would like to know
.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Eugene Robinson: Clinton Flak

Say it ain’t so, Eugene!

Say I misread the column yesterday and it was not written by you, but it was actually a paid ad which found its way to the Post’s op-ed page. It read like one.

“Only” 13 donors gave the Clinton Foundation $10 million or more. Only 13? Like you wrote: "Hey, times are tough." Poor Bill; poor Hill. What's a body to do?

Your own newspaper on the front page and others raised concerns about this special, conflicting self-interest relationship.

Is this the way it will be during the Obama administration? Pandering to the cabinet? The Harvard-educated, "lily white" in everything but color, elitist cabinet?

Let's see...hmmmm...the taxpayers give to the government. The government gives to Freddie. The government gives to Citi. Citi raises interest rates on the taxpayers. Freddie gives to Bill. Citi give to Bill. Bill gives to Bill! What goes around comes around; is that it?

Why aren't thousands screaming? Is it because, once again, "our representatives" sit with their hands out and receive some more and reap what they can from the coffers of the taxpayers?

Cartoon idea: Hillary is seated at a round table in a tent with a map of the Middle East behind her. Guards stand nearby. There are papers on the table. She is wearing a skirted suit and flashing a big grin from ear to ear. Seated with her is a sheik wearing wraparound sunglasses, sandals, white head dress and long white robe covering his entire body except for hands and face, and a sword is affixed to his cloth robe belt. He looks rather glum as he handles some of the scattered papers on the table.

Hillary says: “Yes, Chic (sic), I think I can arrange a meeting for you with President Obama.”

Below the table is a serpent with the head of Bill Clinton wrapped around her legs holding dollar bills in his teeth.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Shoes for Bush in Washington, D.C.





As I approached the scene 20 minutes past the 11 o'clock hour in front of the White House Wednesday, the atmosphere of the Code Pink rally to memorialize Sunday's shoe throwing incident at George Bush was almost that of a garden party on pavement. The press vastly outnumbered the few activists who showed up, and together they stood around laughing, smiling, talking on a cloudy, cool day.

Some of the 20 activists threw shoes at the weaving, unsteady "George Bush" life-sized bobblehead dressed in mask and prison garb and holding "dollar bills" which he periodically offered to those nearby. An abundant but permissive, polite police force stood back, under worked by the small crowd.

Attending were Dana Milbank with photographer in tow, and David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org who graciously consented to yet another interview when approached by an Arabic cameraman and a reporter. A girl, about 8, dressed in pink, explained her presence at the rally to a television crew.

Was the Christmas message affecting everyone?

I added my old shoes to a small pile in front of "Bush" and sadly took note of the rows of shoes with widows' and orphans' names attached, like headstones at a cemetery.

A likely Code Pink representative "rescued" Bush when a senior citizen with a long grey beard beat the bobblehead with several shoes which were scattered hither and yon on the street, much like the bodies of the the injured and the dead from a bombing in Baghdad today.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A wasted pulpit: Laura Bush

For eight years she commanded the rostrum. Or could have. But did not.

For eight years she could have visited classrooms, read to children, visited school libraries, drawn enormous attention wherever she went to the plight of reading among schoolchildren in this county, but she did not. Consider the press she would have attracted to the sad condition of thousands of school libraries!

But she did not. Why not?

It's too late now, Laura Bush. You, a librarian, who I imagine knows something about the poor performances of our children compared to those in other nations.

You whose husband shepherded the ill-fated No Child Left Behind to its certain death.

You wasted your pulpit! You gave up eight years to be a doormat and do absolutely nothing. Do you want your daughters to grow up to be like you?

Your chance is gone to help children read better, to show their parents how they could have read to their children for just ten minutes a day. You could have been a role model for mothers everywhere.

Michelle Obama is different from you, and I have not one shred of doubt that she will use the pulpit firmly planted in front of her, unlike you.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Oh, Please! "Please Donate"

Good grief! Won't these people ever stop?

“Please donate” to Barack Obama. To the man we keep hearing has $30 million in the bank from leftover funds!

Please!

The"asks" came in two emails, no less, on consecutive days. The nerve of those people!

First, David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, writes asking that we continue, c o n t i n u e, campaign meetings at home. Please! Can we ever get a break? We are supposed to do this for the next four years?

To promote Obama’s platform? Please don't try to kid me it's "our" platform.

“At the house meetings, you'll reflect on our campaign, discuss the future of this movement, and identify some ways to get involved in your community.

"Meeting hosts will report back, and your feedback will be instrumental in guiding this movement through some important and unprecedented territory.”


When I saw the “Please donate” button on Barack Obama’s page, I was stunned. Was this an old page, I wondered, fearing the answer.

”Your donation will support the Democratic National Committee and help recover the enormous resources they committed to this campaign.”


Get real, people! Did not the voters of this nation just send a zillion billion more Democrats to Congress and the U.S. Senate? Another Democrat is busted for bribery, and you are asking us to fund more Democrats? In this economy?

What about the "little people," you know the ones who don't count, the ones in the middle and below the middle who actually need some of Obama's leftover cash? The ones who don’t feed off the public’s tit?

Is it not stupifying that Obama's team has the audacity to send out solicitation letters six weeks after we worked feverishly to elect him, and here he comes asking for more!

How about the big bailout money going to an entity other than the fat banks, and the execs who fly in and fly out like witches on broomsticks crying “poor mouth”?

Why do the taxpayers bailout Citi which forked over big bucks ("multi-millions") to fund Bill Clinton’s latest “global” meeting? (The taxpayers pay the government which pays Citi which pays Bill Clinton who pays Bill Clinton who pays Bill Clinton, and who is Secretary of State and he's not going to wave influence?)

The election’s over, the results are sealed, the people are forgotten to feed the coffers of the corporations, the greedy fat cats who need more and more and more.

What hath we wrought?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Inauguration and Fairfax County Democrats

And you thought you were planning ahead?

How about camping out on Pennsylvania Avenue five days before the big event? That’s the plan, and how many more are going to throw down land claims? This place is going bonkers.

Then there’s the group trying to come up with the down payment for yet another Inaugural Ball, the "Grassroots Ball," to be held January 19 at the Ronald Reagan building ($52,000 deposit, and they are getting close) which, at the stroke of midnight will turn the pumpkin carriage scene into feet and legs to move to the Mall to stake out more land claims (if there is any land left at that bewitching hour, just precious few before the Big Event).

But where’s my date? Yeekers, yikers!
I'm late, I'm late for
A very important date.
No time to say hello, good-bye,
I'm late, I'm late, I'm late


Meanwhile, back in Fairfax County for a meeting Wednesday night of 30-some always strong willed Democrats, the “Brigades,” who just can’t give it up! ("We live it up!")

Echoing the statements of several present, Dewita Soeharjono, campaigner/canvasser extraordinaire, said she knocked on doors in Ohio and Pennsylvania for Mr. Barack Obama. One Middle Easterner said he traveled to 19 states for Obama. An official from the Fairfax County Office of Elections attending the meeting "on her own time" said the Obama effort to register voters was more than extraordinary, and she praised the group for its unearthly muscle, energy, and verve.

Thank goodness Virginia has elections every year to help satiate the political junkies who have it in their blood to run and run and run, or help others to run and run and run.

Seems like the 2009 governor’s race finds the determined Democrats supporting Brian Moran; the less-determined, supporting Creigh Deeds, and the Clintons, Terry McAuliffe.

Jon Bowerbank from Russell County, a candidate running in the Virginia 2009 race for Lieutenant Governor, had a spokesperson present, and Mark Keam formerly of Sen. Dick Durbin’s staff and huge Obama supporter, is running for State Assembly, a supporter announced. Where was Creigh Deeds' representative? A man supporting Brian Moran for governor spoke up, urging the group to support him.

Although McAuliffe has lived in McLean about 20 years, why does he seem like a carpet-bagger? Could be he’s never traveled south of McLean? Give that man a road map, one Republican said, so he will know the difference between Norton and Norfolk!