NYT on Guantánamo "Nothing has been more damaging to the United States than the violation of the legal principles at the heart of the American idea."

 

Today's NYT has an op-ed by Roger Cohen giving thanks that our next president is a constitutional lawyer.

Of the 770 detainees grabbed here and there and flown to Guantánamo, only 23 have ever been charged with a crime. Of the more than 500 so far released, many traumatized by those “enhanced” techniques, not one has received an apology or compensation for their season in hell.

What they got on release was a single piece of paper from the American government. A U.S. official met one of the dozens of Afghans now released from Guantánamo and was so appalled by this document that he forwarded me a copy.

Dated Oct. 7, 2006, it reads as follows:

“An Administrative Review Board has reviewed the information about you that was talked about at the meeting on 02 December 2005 and the deciding official in the United States has made a decision about what will happen to you. You will be sent to the country of Afghanistan. Your departure will occur as soon as possible.”

That’s it, the one and only record on paper of protracted U.S. incarceration: three sentences for four years of a young Afghan’s life, written in language Orwell would have recognized.

We have “the deciding official,” not an officer, general or judge. We have “the information about you,” not allegations, or accusations, let alone charges. We have “a decision about what will happen to you,” not a judgment, ruling or verdict. This is the lexicon of totalitarianism. It is acutely embarrassing to the United States.

That is why I am thankful above all that the next U.S. commander in chief is a constitutional lawyer. Nothing has been more damaging to the United States than the violation of the legal principles at the heart of the American idea.

Roger Cohen on Guantánamo

Original Linky

Best Buy <em>Really</em> Does Not Want To Let You Buy The Advertised Special [Upselling]

 

Reader John writes in with a story about "upselling" at Best Buy. He saw a TomTom GPS unit for $99.99 on sale at Best Buy, so he headed over to the store to pick one up. What follows is his account of how much trouble it was to actually buy the item. We think we counted 9 times that John had to tell various and sundry Best Buy employees that, yes, he was sure that he didn't want to buy a slightly more expensive model of the same device.

Here's John's story:

Today (11-23), Best Buy had a Tom Tom One 125 GPS for $99.99 - $80 off the regular price. My daughter has wanted one for Christmas, so I figured now was the time. When I got to the store, I found an associate in the GPS department and said I wanted to purchase the unit advertised. Without asking any questions, he immediately told me it was an entry level model so it probably wasn't what I wanted. I politely said, no, it was indeed the unit I wanted. He then said, you realize the maps aren't installed on this and it takes 3+ hours to install them. He continued saying that for "only" $30 more, they had the same unit with the maps already installed.

I again politely said no thank you, this is the one I want. He said three hours is a long time, you know. I said yes it is, and it feels like I might have to stand here three hours at the rate you are trying to sell me something else. May I please buy the GPS advertised?

Sure, he says, but I have to wait for my manager because he has the key. OK. After about 5 minutes the associate says sorry this is taking so long. How about if I show you some of the other GPS units we have. No thank you I tell him. I just want to buy this one. Are you sure? Yes I am. When have these over here... Now I had to gently but firmly tell him this is the one I want and I would be happy to go to a competitor that price matches if they don't want to sell me what I want to buy. Ok, he says, I'll go get my manager (oy!).

So the manager arrives and starts all over with, you know this is a very basic model, the install isn't included and takes three hours, but for only $30 more... No thank you, this is the one I want. Please may I have it? Finally the GPS is removed from the case and given to the associate to walk up to the register (apparently customers aren't to be trusted with such an elementary device until the transaction is complete). As we walk to the register, no less than two associates we pass say to my associate "hey Joe, did you let him know that is the basic one and the maps take like forever to install? You did? Oh. Did you tell him about the $30 special we have on preloaded maps? Oh. Ok" Talk about blatant upselling!

Finally at the register. Ahhh. Nope, not quite. Now it's the cashier's turn. She tells me about the $30 more option for maps. No thank you I again politely say. Then she tells me her sister had this one, but returned it for a more expensive one because all it did was give directions. That's too bad for your sister I sympathize. When I pull out my Best Buy reward coupons for another $15 off, she says she doesn't think that I can use them on a sale item. I politely say that I didn't see that exception. Where is that stated? Well, no where but she is pretty sure I can only use one coupon at a time... Let's try them both and see what happens, OK? I ask.

Reluctantly I am finally out the door with a $99.99 GPS less $15 in rewards credit, plus tax.

I wonder how many other customers will get upsold?

Now, obviously we are not lawyers, but we would like to direct your attention to the following paragraphs from the FTC's "Guide Against Bait Advertising." These paragraphs are from a section that lists some of the many shady things that retailers do when pulling a bait and switch. Disparaging an advertised item is one of them.

No act or practice should be engaged in by an advertiser to discourage the purchase of the advertised merchandise as part of a bait scheme to sell other merchandise. Among acts or practices which will be considered in determining if an advertisement is a bona fide offer are:
...
b) The disparagement by acts or words of the advertised product or the disparagement of the guarantee, credit terms, availability of service, repairs or parts, or in any other respect, in connection with it,

Gee whiz. Good job sticking to your guns, John.

Guides Against Bait Advertising [FTC]

Original Linky

France Gets New Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, World Exclaims "Merde!" [Missiles]

 

What you see here is the new M51 nuclear ballistic missile literally getting out of the swimming pool. For some reason, the French military—like everyone else, really—thinks that it is a good idea to spend five billion dollars developing new and more effective methods to destroy the planet as the world itself keeps going to hell on its own. Because what humanity needs right now is a Mer-Sol-Balistique-Stratégique missile, oh le missile, loaded with six independently targetable TN 75 thermonuclear warheads with "penetration aids" (yes, they are French. Pervs).

The three-stage solid propellant engine of the M51 is derived from the Ariane 5 rocket, weights 57 tons and has a range of 4,970 miles, guided by inertial and star position systems. It would be delivered in 2010 to their Triomphant class submarines and, hopefully, they will get rusty in there. Or maybe not.

Original Linky

 

Citibank Teaches Us How To Destroy A $244 Billion Banking Institution [Too Big To Fail]

 

Only two short years ago, Citibank was worth $244 billion. Now, after its stock lost half of its value in just the past week, the bank is estimated to be worth $20.5 billion. What happened? The New York Times attempted to answer that question Saturday, and it pointed the finger at the usual suspects — conflicts of interest between those who were supposed to manage risk — and those who stood to benefit from making risky bets.

The Times says that in September of last year, Citibank held a meeting to discuss the looming mortgage crisis. Citibank's CEO at the time, the since-canned Charles O. Prince III, asked Thomas G. Maheras, who oversaw trading at the bank, "whether everything was O.K." Maheras assured him that it was, and kept assuring him until it was too late.

From the NYT:

For months, Mr. Maheras’s reassurances to others at Citigroup had quieted internal concerns about the bank’s vulnerabilities. But this time, a risk-management team was dispatched to more rigorously examine Citigroup’s huge mortgage-related holdings. They were too late, however: within several weeks, Citigroup would announce billions of dollars in losses.

Normally, a big bank would never allow the word of just one executive to carry so much weight. Instead, it would have its risk managers aggressively look over any shoulder and guard against trading or lending excesses.

But many Citigroup insiders say the bank’s risk managers never investigated deeply enough. Because of longstanding ties that clouded their judgment, the very people charged with overseeing deal makers eager to increase short-term earnings — and executives’ multimillion-dollar bonuses — failed to rein them in, these insiders say.

Now, of course, the losses at Citibank — over $65 billion so far — threaten to dismantle the entire bank.

The article, which is 5 pages long, goes into detail about the relationships between the executives responsible for designing the strategy that ran Citibank into the ground. They lay a large part of the responsibility at the feet of Robert E. Rubin, a top adviser at Citibank and the Secretary of the Treasury during both Clinton administrations.

When he was Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Mr. Rubin helped loosen Depression-era banking regulations that made the creation of Citigroup possible by allowing banks to expand far beyond their traditional role as lenders and permitting them to profit from a variety of financial activities. During the same period he helped beat back tighter oversight of exotic financial products, a development he had previously said he was helpless to prevent.

And since joining Citigroup in 1999 as a trusted adviser to the bank’s senior executives, Mr. Rubin, who is an economic adviser on the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama, has sat atop a bank that has been roiled by one financial miscue after another.

Interesting stuff.

Original Linky

Dealership Demands BMW Back, Then Claims You Never Returned It [Lemon Law]

 

Two years ago, an arbitrator ordered a car dealership in Queens, NY to refund a customer's money under the "lemon law." You'd think that would be the end of the story, but no... it's the beginning. Jessica Harrison says she returned the "lemon" 2004 BMW to "Planet Auto Mall" but the dealer claims that they don't know what happened to the vehicle. Now Jessica has to keep making payments on the missing BMW.

Fox 5 in New York did one of their notorious "Shame, Shame, Shame" segments about the debacle, confronting the dealer with pictures of the car being accepted and the $1700 in parking tickets that racked up as they left it out on the street for several months.

The whole story began when Jessica bought the BMW from Planet Auto Mall in Queens for around $45,000. Soon after she bought the car, it began shaking when she drove it. Planet Auto Mall's mechanics tried to fix the car — but couldn't. When she took it to a BMW specialist they found that there were so many things wrong with the vehicle that it wasn't even safe to drive. Jessica filed a "lemon law" claim against the dealership and won — but that's when her real problems started.

The auto dealer filed a legal challenge to the arbitrator's decision — based on the fact that Jessica had not returned the car. So she did. And she took pictures. And now the dealer says they never got the car. Even though it was sitting outside their dealership for months:

Fox 5: "There were like, 17 or more tickets that were issued to the car... right on the street around here."

Dealership Manager: "Sure. Somebody can say 'OK, you know what? Hey. Here is... I'm bringing the car and I'm parking it over there.'"

Fox 5: "So you're saying she might have..."

Dealership Manager: "She might have. I'm not sure."

Fox 5: "She might have put the car on the street."

Dealership Manager: "She might have put the car wherever she wants to put it."

The dealership lost their case in May, but have still not paid up because they've filed an appeal. Fox 5 stormed in with their cameras and demanded answers of the dealership's owner, but, of course, got none.

Jessica's next payment is still due on the 14th.

Planet Auto Mall [MyFoxNY]

Original Linky

Apple to Mac owners: throw away your monitor if Hollywood says so

 

Buying an Apple computer? Get ready to throw away your monitor, over and over again. New Apple hardware is shipping with "HDCP" anti-copying technology that prevents showing some video on "non-compliant" monitors. Best part: the list of "compliant" monitors will change over time: the monitor you buy today can be "revoked" tomorrow and stop working.

Slashdot says that Apple's added "copyright protection" to its video. But copyright law isn't violated when you watch a movie on an "unapproved" monitor. This isn't about enforcing copyright law, it's about giving a small handful of movie companies a veto over hardware designs.

Yesterday, our buddy David Chartier at Ars and Sam Oliver at AppleInsider both publicized an issue that's been burning up the support boards for a while now: iTunes video rentals and purchases in HD are flagged for HDCP control, and in cooperation with the new Mini DisplayPort connector on the MacBook and MacBook Pro unibody models, those movies and TV shows are refusing to play back on non-compliant external displays.

In this case, 'compliant' means HDMI or recent-vintage DVI, but even monitors or TVs that support HDCP may not properly negotiate with the DisplayPort connector to give iTunes and QuickTime the all-clear signal (if so, quitting and relaunching iTunes once the display is hooked up may clear the playback hold).

Equally annoying: HDCP is only supposed to apply to 'high-value' digital streams, meaning standard-def purchases and rentals on the iTunes store should be out of scope... but some reports indicate that both the HD and SD instances are flagged, blocking playback on anything but the laptop's internal display or a straight-thru HDMI connection. Argh!

MacBook Pro users getting bitten by HDCP (Thanks, Denver Jewelry Guy!)

Original Linky

Imprisoned China blogger, human rights activist Hu Jia receives Sakharov Prize

 

The imprisoned Chinese blogger and human rights activist Hu Jia today received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Europe’s most prestigious human rights prize. Snip from NYT article:

The award was a pointed rebuke of China’s ruling Communist Party that came as European leaders were arriving in Beijing for a weekend summit meeting. Mr. Hu, 35, was given the prize by the European Parliament despite warnings from Beijing that his selection would harm relations with the European Union.

Last year, Mr. Hu testified via video link before a hearing of the European Parliament about China’s human rights situation. Weeks later, he was jailed and later sentenced to three and a half years in prison for subversion based on his writings criticizing Communist Party rule.

Mr. Hu has been one of China’s leading figures on a range of human rights issues, while also speaking out on behalf of AIDS patients and for environmental protection. He had been considered a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize, but lost to the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari. “Hu Jia is one of the real defenders of human rights in the People’s Republic of China,” said the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. “The European Parliament is sending out a signal of clear support to all those who support human rights in China.

Chinese Activist Wins Rights Prize (NYT). Embedded video above: Prisoners in Freedom City, an autobiographical internet video documentary about his case, available in multiple parts on YouTube (links to single-file editions there). Hu Jia's case is documented and updated regularly on Twitter. His wife and supporters are very concerned about his health in prison; he has symptoms of liver disease, and information about his whereabouts, condition, and treatment in prison is unavailable. See also this related Los Angeles Times editorial: China should free dissident Hu Jia. Here is Amnesty International's statement.

Original Linky

RebateStatus.com Files For Chapter 11, Your Rebate May Be Affected [Rebates]

 

One of the nation's largest rebate processing firms, CPG (RebateStatus.com) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What does that mean for you? Well, if you happened to mail-in a rebate form with a company that CPG works with, your check may be in limbo because they don't have the money to cash it. At this point, exactly how the situation will be handled is unclear—but there are a few things you can do to get things under control. Dealnews is recommending that anyone who has a rebate check or is expecting one not cash it because it may bounce and result in an NSF fee. Instead, you should hang on to it until more details become available (this goes for rebates that have not been submitted as well). If you are not sure whether or not your rebate is invovled, a partial list of affected companies is available after the break.

 

 

Partial list of companies that have dealt with CFG in recent months:

 

Acronis Software
ACTIVSION
Advance Auto Parts
Antec
AVG
Bed Bath & Beyond
BIC Corporations US - Shaver Division
BFG
Bridgevine
Canon
Citibank
costco
Fujitsu
Home Depot
Logitech
Motorola (Surfboard cable modems)
Natures Earth Products
Nero
Panda Distribution
Pandigital
PC Tools
PriceGrabber
Rosewill (Newegg house brand)
Samsung
Smith Micro Software
Tabletops Unlimited
TrendNET
Westinghouse
XFX
ZeroTherm
Zyxel

Naturally, the best way to tell whether or not you are affected is to head on over to rebatestatus.com and check on your submission. You may also want to try and call any of the numbers listed on your rebate form on the off chance they can provide more information. I would expect an official announcement from CPG (or something from the company you purchased the item from) with details on how to proceed sometime in the next few days. [Dealnews and Fatwallet and Tampa Bay Business Journal Thanks Luis!]

Original Linky

Fear For Your Rebates: Largest Mail-In-Rebate Processor Missing $9 Million? [Consumer Alert]

 

Allegedly, the largest rebate processor in North America, Continental Promotions Group (CPG), owes about $12 million in consumer rebates, but only has $3 million available. According to an insider tip received by [H]Enthusiast, CPG is telling its customers, among whom are some of the largest consumer electronics retailers, to regive it the money necessary to pay out all these rebates. Otherwise, all your little rebate checks might start bouncing. Assuming, of course, you were ever able to get them in the first place...

Your Mail in Rebate May Be In Jeopardy [[H]]Enthusiast] (Thanks to xskeweredx!)

Original Linky

United Adds $800 In Fees To $560 Trip, Loses Customer For Life [Bad Business]

 

We have a feeling this is going to happen with increasing frequency as airlines continue to bleed once-loyal customers for extra revenue: Greg Dean, the cartoonist behind Real Life Comics, has had enough of United gouging him. First it was the second checked bag fee, then the first checked bag fee. Then they doubled the pet-in-cabin fee to $175 each way, which works out to more than the cost of a human round-trip ticket.

And let's not forget the exorbitant booking fee for using miles for one of our tickets. The actual FLIGHT was only $280 round trip per ticket, but with the booking fee TO USE THE MILES TO PURCHASE A TICKET, we wound up paying over $500.

When Dean tried to convert the two tickets into travel vouchers, the airline charged him another $300. And that, readers, is when the airline killed off one of their better customer relationships.

For a trip that requires two roundtrip tickets priced at $280 each, or $560 before taxes, United managed to tack on over $800 in additional fees:

1st checked bag*:
$30

2nd checked bag
50

pet-in-cabin fee
350

booking fee (estimated)
150

travel voucher conversion fee
300

Total:
$850

figures reflect round-trip totals

Dean doesn't have a permalink to his post—it's just up on the "News" section of his front page—so we're reprinting it below for posterity:

There seems to be a trend with me lately - it seems that, without fail, if I am on the phone with United Airlines, it's going to end in me cursing them out.

First, let me point something out. I used to be a devotee to United Airlines. For years, when we had trouble flying on American or Delta or *shudder* Southwest, United was always there as our rock - flights were usually smooth, we got decent service, and life was good. We signed up for frequent flier cards, (Even got a free upgrade to First class from L.A. to Chicago once) and I got a credit card that would give me bonus miles with them. I also had sort of a soft spot for them in my heart, given that my Grandfather worked maintenance for them for most of his life in San Francisco. After his memorial, I wound up taking a bunch of his old United memorabilia home with me, and I'm always going to treasure it, no matter what.

But coincidentally, that particular flight was where the love affair started to go south. See, it was around June, and it was when they started adding on fees for the second checked bag - which we didn't know about until we got to the gate, of course. I understood, to a degree - fuel prices were at an all-time high, and the airlines had to make up for the difference somehow. But I do clearly remember mentioning to the gate agent that "Heh... you KNOW those fees aren't going to go away when fuel prices come down again." How right I was.

Now, of course, fuel has dropped to the lowest price it's been in YEARS, and have they removed the fee? HA! They went one step further... because in early October, we booked a flight home so we could spend Christmas with our families. During that phone call, I discovered that not only had they added a fee for the FIRST checked bag (WHO flies without checking at least ONE bag?!) but they had increased the pet-in-cabin price from $85 per direction (It had previously been $75 the year before) to ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS per direction. Considering we'd be taking Selphie both ways, that adds up to MORE than the price of a ticket - just for the privilege of putting a dog carrier under the seat in front of us. And let's not forget the exorbitant booking fee for using miles for one of our tickets. The actual FLIGHT was only $280 round trip per ticket, but with the booking fee TO USE THE MILES TO PURCHASE A TICKET, we wound up paying over $500. The pet-in-cabin charge would be paid at the gate, of course. And don't forget the roughly $80 extra we would have to pay just to check our bags. This was the first instance where the phone call ended in extreme profanity.

Now, of course, we're MOVING BACK to California. We no longer have need for a flight from Austin to Sacramento. So, I decided to call United and see if it would be possible to convert the tickets into travel vouchers that we could use at another time. Certainly, said the reservations agent! There's only a fee of $150 per ticket to do so.

THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?! FOR YOU TO PRESS A FEW BUTTONS AND CHANGE SOME INFORMATION IN A COMPUTER?! Needless to say, that phone call did not end in a civil fashion. I don't care if these people aren't personally responsible for these fees. They're representatives of United, and as such, they deserve to hear what I have to say. Take your fees and shove it.

And so, here and now, I officially renounce United Airlines. Call it whatever you want. A denouncement. A boycott. I don't care - the long and the short of it is this - I will never willingly fly United again, and I would urge anyone to whom customer service is important to boycott them as well. And not just United - I pledge, here and now, to never fly on another Star Alliance airline, either - domestically, this means no flying on US Airways. (Not exactly a huge loss) And I'm going to keep this up until United elects to rescind their fees for the first and second bags, and until the silly fees like $175 for a pet-in-cabin go away. But I'm not silly enough to think that the actions of one man are enough to get something done. That's why I'm calling on you guys.

I'm sure I'm not the only one furious with United Airlines for the treatment I've received - I'm sure many, many others have had the same experiences. Tomorrow, I will be writing up an actual, paper letter and sending it off to United, and I encourage you to do the same. If you feel so inclined, their mailing address is as follows:

Customer Relations
WHQPW
United Airlines
PO Box 66100
Chicago, IL 60666

Whether the fees go away or not is immaterial. I'm just pissed that United has $500 of my money that I'm never going to see again, and they're holding it hostage unless I pay an ADDITIONAL $300 to make use of it sometime in the next year. And so, I'm going to throw in my one profanity in this entire post - I say this so that people like my mom who don't really care for profanity can stop reading now.

Fuck you, United Airlines. You just lost a devoted customer.

Real Life Comics (Thanks to Arthur!)
(Photo: Getty Images)

Original Linky

Ohio Continues To Punch Pay Day Lenders In The Face [Pay Day Lending]

 

Check 'N Go, a pay day lender, is closing 36 of its 71 stores in Ohio after voters failed to repeal a law that stopped them from charging asinine interest rates.

From the Business Courier of Cincinnati:

The move follows the rejection by voters of Issue 5, a referendum sponsored by the payday lending industry. The issue, if passed, would have repealed a recently enacted state law limiting interest rates the industry can charge to 28 percent, versus the previous annualized rate of 391 percent.

The day after the Nov. 5 election, Fort Worth, Texas-based Cash America International Inc. announced that it would shut down 43 of its 140 shops in Ohio.

“Unfortunately, as we communicated throughout the campaign, operating under the restrictions set forth in House Bill 545 is not an option,” said Doug Clark, chief operating officer for Check 'n Go, in the release.

In case you were not aware, pay day lending is a form of evil.

Check 'N Go closing 36 Ohio sites [Bizjournals] (Thanks, Nick!)
(Photo: u2acro )

Original Linky

Video: JiffyLube Caught Upselling Car-Damaging Repair Services [Investigations]

 

KNBC undercover cameras caught local JiffyLubes and EZ-Lubes upselling customers to buy engine-flushing and fuel-injection cleaning services, services which have been forbidden by auto-manufacturers because they're unnecessary and can severely damage your engine. One guy's engine died while he was driving on the highway, and it cost him $5,000 to replace his engine.

Engine-flushing is supposed to clean out the gunk and deposits in your engine, but breaking these up is like dislodging a blood clot - they can jam up other sensitive components. Honda calls fuel-injection cleaning an "improper repair procedure" as it can damage other injection parts. They and other makers have sent notices to repair shops telling them not to perform them. Despite this, KNBC received complaints from across the country from consumers with cars damaged after getting upsold into the potentially dangerous service. See more in their video report, below:In a statement, both JiffyLube and EZLube say it wasn't acceptable for employees to lie and say services were recommended by the manufacturer when they weren't, and the employees caught would be fired.Could This Damage Your Car? [KNBC]

 

Original Linky

International Motor Productions Screws Reader Over $500 Deposit On Misrepresented, Wrecked, BMW [International Motor Productions]

 

Aaron went shopping on AutoTrader and saw a BMW he liked sold by International Motor Productions. The lady over the phone, Brigette Brown, told him everything about the car was perfect. He put down a $500 deposit and flew down from Chicago to check it out with his friend Nathan. There he discovered the body panels didn't line up and the tires were mismatched and worn. When he took it for a test drive, it pulled under acceleration and made horrible noises. He took it to a reputable dealer who inspected the car and assessed it had been in an accident and had frame damage. When he took it back to International Motor Productions and asked for his deposit back...

...Brigette refused and also refused to let anyone else test drive the car.

Aaron is now pursuing complaints against the company with the BBB and the State's Attorney General. Deposit, hotel, rental and airfare, Aaron and his friend are out $2,000. A check of their online profile turns up a number of very sever complaints against the company, mixed in with a number of glowing reviews.

Our request for comment from International Motor Productions was not returned.

"I am also curious as to where they get cars that have clean titles, but have obviously been wrecked. (*cough* chop shop *cough*)", said Nathan.

AutoTrader doesn't let customers post dealership reviews. Before putting down a deposit and flying to get your dream car, make sure to always check out a dealership's reputation elsewhere, like their BBB report and Yahoo! Local reviews. Question for the readers, if you were to check out a dealership's rep, where would you look first?

Original Linky

American Express Becomes A Bank... And Wants Bailout Money [Bailout]

 

American Express won U.S. Federal Reserve approval to become a bank holding company — giving it access to the bailout party as credit card defaults climb. Bloomberg News says that the Fed waived the usual 30 day waiting period because (in the words of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke) we're experiencing "unusual and exigent circumstances affecting the financial markets." Today, American Express has requested $3.5 billion in taxpayer-funded capital from the federal government, says the WSJ.

From the Wall Street Journal:

While retailers, car companies and others hit by the slowdown in consumer spending haven't gotten the government money, financial firms of all kinds are getting federal bailouts.

It isn't clear if the application under the Troubled Asset Relief Program came before or after the credit- and charge-card giant got Federal Reserve approval Monday to become a bank-holding company.

Amex's shares are down 57% this year as even affluent consumers keep their plastic in their wallets. The WSJ says that it is unclear how Amex would use the money — and that it's clear that $3.5 billion won't help with the consumer spending slump.

Notoriously slime-filled credit card issuer Capital One has already received approval for $3.5 billion in bailout cash.

AmEx Said to Request $3.5 Billion in U.S. Aid [WSJ] (Thanks, Jameson!)
American Express Wins Fed Approval to Become Bank (Update1) [Bloomberg]

Original Linky

25 Years Ago Today, Bill Gates Announced Windows 1.0 [Retromodo]

 

Two decades and a half ago today, Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft's first operating systems. Oh, it wasn't for sale yet—no, no, it's still only 1983 and we wouldn't see Windows on store shelves until 1985. But that didn't stop the young heart throb Gates.

Gates wasn't at all shy when promoting his debut Windows OS at New York's Helmsley Palace Hotel that day, claiming that it, powered by a unique graphical interface, would be running 90% of IBM systems by 1984 (before missing the launch date by a year, of course). To his credit, that ridiculously lofty number is just about identical to the Windows marketshare of today.

Windows 1 wouldn't be around for long, with its Windows 2 predecessor following just two years later. But if you have a fond memory of the old OS, now would be a good time to share it with the class in the comments. [Wired and image]

Original Linky

Yes We Can!!!

FCC: Why Are Cable Customers Paying The Same Amount For Fewer Channels? [Digital Tv Transition]

 

The WSJ says that the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to 11 cable companies asking why their customers are paying the same amount each month, even as the companies move channels to digital cable.

The WSJ says:

Some consumers are complaining that they are getting fewer channels now on their analog cable service, as cable companies move channels to more-expensive, digital tiers. Once a channel is moved to a digital tier, it is unavailable to analog customers, who still make up about 40% of cable subscribers.

Agency officials said the investigation stems from concerns that cable companies could be trying to use the transition to digital-only television broadcasts in February to lure their subscribers to move to these more-expensive digital tiers.

Cable subscribers don't have to do anything to prepare for the digital transition, because that will affect only consumers who rely on TV sets using antennas. Cable subscribers aren't required to upgrade to digital tiers of service, either.

We can't wait for the explanation.

Reader Tim, who sent the article in, says:

I'm glad the FCC is finally investigating the questionable practices of cable companies, including RCN, who is now forcing converter boxes on their subscribers at a cost of $4 per TV per month and creating a new "digital tier" and essentially forcing consumers to subscribe to this new "premium" package just to get the same channels as before.

FCC Opens Investigation Into Cable-TV Pricing [WSJ]
(Photo: Getty)

Original Linky

Daughter of slave votes for Obama

109-year-old Bastrop woman casts her vote by mail.

By Joshunda Sanders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, October 27, 2008

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country's first black presidential nominee.

The middle child of 13, Jones, who is African American, is part of a family that has lived in Bastrop County for five generations. The family has remained a fixture in Cedar Creek and other parts of the county, even when its members had to eat at segregated barbecue dives and walk through the back door while white customers walked through the front, said Amanda Jones' 68-year-old daughter, Joyce Jones.

For at least a decade, Amanda Jones worked as a maid for $20 a month, Joyce Jones said. She was a housewife for 72 years and helped her now-deceased husband, C.L. Jones, manage a store.

Amanda Jones, a delicate, thin woman wearing golden-rimmed glasses, giggled as the family discussed this year's presidential election. She is too weak to go the polls, so two of her 10 children — Eloise Baker, 75, and Joyce Jones — helped her fill out a mail-in ballot for Barack Obama, Baker said. "I feel good about voting for him," Amanda Jones said.

Jones' father herded sheep as a slave until he was 12, according to the family, and once he was freed, he was a farmer who raised cows, hogs and turkeys on land he owned. Her mother was born right after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Joyce Jones said. The family owned more than 100 acres of land in Cedar Creek at one point, she said.

Amanda Jones' father urged her to exercise her right to vote, despite discriminatory practices at the polls and poll taxes meant to keep black and poor people from voting. Those practices were outlawed for federal elections with the 24th Amendment in 1964, but not for state and local races in Texas until 1966.

Amanda Jones says she cast her first presidential vote for Franklin Roosevelt, but she doesn't recall which of his four terms that was. When she did vote, she paid a poll tax, her daughters said. That she is able, for the first time, to vote for a black presidential nominee for free fills her with joy, Jones said.

One of Amanda Jones' 33 grandchildren, Brenda Baker, 44, said the family is moved by the election's significance to the matriarch.

"It's awesome to me that we have such a pillar of our family still with us," Baker said. "It's awesome to see what she's done, and all her hard work, and to see that she may be able to see the results of all that hard work" if Obama is elected, she said.

Jones lives in a small gray house with white trim just off Texas 21. These days, a curious white kitten and a sleepy old black dog guard the house. Inside are photographs and relics of a long, full life, including a letter from then-Gov. George Bush in 1998 commemorating her 100th birthday. A black-and-white picture of her in a long flapper-style dress was taken between 1912 and 1918 — no one can remember the exact year, Baker said with a chuckle.

Jones is part of a small percentage of active voters above the age of 100 in the state — and the country.

Sister Cecilia Gaudette, a 106-year-old nun born in New Hampshire but living in Rome, made recent national headlines as the nation's oldest voter. But if Texas records are any indication, that's hard to validate.

Secretary of State spokeswoman Ashley Burton said Texas can't confirm whether Jones is the state's oldest active voter because there is too much voter information to sort through. At the county level, there are other challenges. An election official in Hays County said its records are not searchable by age, and Bastrop County elections administrator Nora Cano said that some counties automatically list voters who were born before the turn of the 20th century with birth dates of January 1900.

The oldest active voter in Travis County is 105, officials said, and in Williamson County the oldest is 106 — making Jones the oldest-known active voter in Central Texas.

Making it to see the election results on Nov. 5 is important, but Jones is resting up for another milestone: her 110th birthday in December. "God has been good to me," she said.

joshundasanders@statesman.com;445-3630

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Windows 3.x Discontinued [Software]

 

Believe it or not, up to November 1st many could and still were buying licenses for Windows 3.x (mainly for embedded systems like cash registers and airline entertainment systems from companies like Virgin). But on that day, Microsoft discontinued their licensing of the product. After 18 years, the iconic Windows platform is no more.

Requirements for the OS included a 8086/8088 processor with clock speed of 10MHz, 7MB of storage (better move Police Quest to a floppy) and 640KB of RAM. And when you realize that Vista requires a minimum of 1GHz processor and 20GB of storage, it's easy to see why at least some low end systems will miss the platform...until they just grab a copy of Linux instead. [BBC via Slashdot and image]

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Best Buy Caught Using Sneaky Sneaky Tricks To Sell HDTV Calibration Service []

 

I've read some bad Best Buy stories in my time here at The Consumerist, but this one really takes the asshole cake. To sell its special HDTV calibration service, this Best Buy in NC set up two identical model HDTVs, both showing ESPN. As seen in the picture tipster Robert took, the "calibrated" one is noticeably better. That's because it's showing ESPN HD and the one on the left is showing just regular ESPN. You can also see how a set of box have been placed in front of the non-calibrated tv on the left so you can't see that's it not ESPN HD. That, my friends, is quintessential deceptive marketing. Robert's story of what he saw, and the rivers of bullshit and non-answer that came out of the Best Buy employees' mouths when he confronted them about it, inside...

Dear Consumerist,

While helping my father look for an HDTV at the newest Best Buy in Charlotte, NC this Sunday, I came across their demo display of their color calibration service. On the left side of the demo, they had a HDTV tuned to ESPN, and on the right, there was the exact same model of TV presumably tuned to the same station, but with a far superior picture. The difference between the two was remarkable; the left one was grainy and blurry while the right one looked sharp and detailed. Thinking that something was not right, I took a further look at the demo and realized that the inferior tv on the left was turned to plain old ESPN, and the superior tv on the right was tuned to ESPN HD. What's even worse is they had a box for their Black Tie TV Protection Plan strategically placed so that when looking at the display from most angles, it covered up the ESPN logo on the left tv as to disguise the fact that it was not an HD channel.

Having figured out the nature of their scam, I went to talk to one of the employees. I showed him the TVs, and he didn't have much to say besides that the color calibration service would decrease power consumption on my TV by 30%, which if I am not mistaken, a flat out lie.

Another employee overheard our conversation, and would at first, not admit that one tv had an HD signal and that the other one did not. He insisted that the difference was strictly because of their color calibration. Not wanting to let him get away with his BS, I told him that his claim was impossible, and finally got him to admit not only that I was right, but also that the tv with the standard signal was set to stretch the picture out (presumably to make the picture even worse). He then say that it would probably help to set the TVs to the same channel, but he "didn't know where the remote was."

By that point I was tired of the crap flowing out of his mouth, so I proceeded to shop around. Ten minutes later when I was ready to leave, I passed by the demo again only to find that the employee had done nothing, and that it was just as misleading as it was before.

This is just a cheap tactic to get people to buy into their crappy calibration service, which I could probably do myself with a half hour of playing with the settings on my TV. While I noticed the scam, I highly doubt that my 70+ year old father would.

Attached is a picture I quickly snapped with my iPhone. It's not the best, but you can still see that the right one is set on ESPN HD while the left one is just regular ESPN. I guess this is just another example of Best Buys classy business practices.

-Robert

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Getting Naked in Short selling

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Should An Infant With No Seat Have To Pay A $320 Fuel Surcharge? [Delta]

 

Here's an interesting situation. When babies fly domestically, they fly for free — but international flights require a ticket and, apparently, a huge fuel surcharge.

From Elliott.org:

The agent asked for our ticket for our son. I will not go into all of the details, but an hour later (and 35 minutes to flight departure), we were forced to pay 332 euros ($423.10) to get my son a ticket so he could return back to the states.

Words cannot describe my outrage at the time, especially the justification of the fees ($320 fuel surcharge - $160 each way??!!). How can they legally charge that much when our ten pound infant does not even have a seat?

Delta responded to this complaint with a form letter explaining that kids need a ticket — which is 10% of the regular fare. The only problem? He'd already paid that fee when he booked the tickets. The $320 was explained to him as a fuel surcharge.

Should passengers who don't even get a seat and weigh 10 lbs be charged this fee? Seems a little silly doesn't it?

Waaaa! Baby gets socked with surprise $320 fuel surcharge on Delta flight [Elliott] (Thanks, Shaula!)
(Photo: So Cal Metro )

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