Sarah Palin vs. Joe Biden Tonight in VP Smackdown

I'm betting that tonight's debate is going to be a train wreck of historic proportions.

Joe Biden will likely make a bad gaffe or two. But handle the mistakes well.

Sarah Palin will likely say a thing or two, so astonishing, that the audience either gasps or giggles or both. She will get tongue-tied in an impossible to parse string of circular verbiage that will have eyes rolling.

There will be a foreign policy question where Sarah Palin will so obviously demonstrate that she is out of her league that the calls for her to step down will grow loud by the time the debate ends.

Sarah Palin may be asked if she believes in witches. This will be a dangerous mindfield for her to navigate without an explosion.

Sarah Palin may be asked again to explain how living in Alaska, close to Russia and Canada, gives her foreign policy experience.

Sarah Palin may be asked to defend her position that victims of rape should not be allowed to have an abortion.

Sarah Palin may be asked a lot of things tonight with answers that will astonish, perplex, upset, amuse, appall and maybe disgust the majority of Americans watching. There will be millions of us.

Below a blurb from yesterday about Sarah Palin and today's debate...

Chesapeake Energy Makes Mother Nature Weep in Fort Worth

Incoming from Don Young about something interesting that has showed up on Scott Avenue, near where Chesapeake Energy is making big holes in some special ground. On Monday I blogged about what is happening on Scott Avenue.

Below is the message from Don Young....

Near the entrance of the newest Chesapeake Energy pad-site in east Fort Worth, Texas, an anonymous artist has installed a painting of, I think, a weeping Mother Nature.

The large canvas is tied to a utility pole at 2900 Scott Avenue. It is festooned with all manner of jewels and other objects. There is a purse attached to one corner and a scene of feeding pigs in another. A skull and other icons are depicted.

Just down the hill, giant earth-raping machines, their motors screaming and their exhaust filling the neighborhood, carve away at what was, last week, one of the most beautiful hills in Fort Worth.

What does the painting symbolize? Who is it directed at? Mayor Moncrief? Chesapeake? The mineral owner? The Gas Drilling Task Force? The city staffers who permitted the gas well? The children of the future? You and me?

Washington Mutual Deserved to Die

Well, by this morning WaMu had credited their erroneous fee that I whined about yesterday. But their customer service person, Eric, never called back to explain what caused their mistake, which he said he would, after he looked into it an talked to his manager.

Do I get to charge WaMu a fee for wasting my time?

I hadn't paid any attention to Big Ed's WaMu nightmare that occurred when I was up in WaMu's home state of Washington. And might I add, I'm embarrassed now that WaMu is associated with Seattle and my former state. Washington businesses, from Starbucks to Costco to Nordstroms are known for their great customer service. I don't know what happened to WaMu.

WaMu arrived in Texas about the same time I did. Maybe it was Texas that ruined them.

So, at the end of July Big Ed opened a WaMu account, making an initial deposit of $1000 with a check from a Fortune 500 company. Big Ed was given the usual counter checks to use til his new debit card and checks arrived.

But, Wal-Mart and other wouldn't take the WaMu checks. 12 days after opening the account Big Ed wanted to get cash, he was near the WaMu bank where he'd opened the account. So, he went there. They wouldn't give him any of his money. They told him it would be available the next day.

Then his new checks and debit card finally arrived. With the wrong address on them. So, now it was another wait to get the corrected card and checks.

So, I Googled "Customer Complaints about WaMu" and found a flood of them. Many within just the past week or so, with complaints like mine. What WaMu has done to others makes my little problem with them, or even Big Ed's look like nothing.

Go here and read what WaMu has done to some of its customers lately.

The Feud Between Dallas and Fort Worth

I was reading through a Mobil Travel Guide, looking for info about the South Texas Gulf Coast, among other things.

The Dallas and Fort Worth entries amused me. The description of each town is the type verbiage that can get some Fort Worth people downright cranky. Fort Worth has had a long history of being in the shadow of Dallas. There is a lot of overcompensating due to this. Go here and read some examples of some in Fort Worth's attitudes towards Dallas and towards their own town.

Quoting from the Mobil Travel Guide about Dallas....

"Dallas is a well-dressed, sophisticated city that tends towards formality. The cultivation of Dallas's urbane cultural persona began in 1855 with the arrival of French, Swiss and Belgian settlers looking to build a Utopian colony. Among them were scientists, artists, writers, naturalists and musicians. The ideal colony did not last, but the nucleus of culture remained on in this young community on the frontier. Today, Dallas thrives with a booming arts and culture scene, ballet, symphony, opera, theater and numerous museums...."

The Mobil Travel Guide mentions Dallas's cultural amenities while their description of Fort Worth somehow forgot to mention that Fort Worth has so much culture they had to build a district just to contain it.

The Mobil Travel Guide description of Fort Worth is funny. And so true....

"Fort Worth has been a rival to its sister city Dallas since the 1870s. When the railroad that ran through the area failed and Fort Worth's population dropped from 4,000 to 1,000 a Dallas newspaper wrote that Fort Worth was a place so dead that a panther was seen sleeping on the main street. In response to the insult, Fort Worth called itself "Panther City" and the feud began. A virtual dividing line between East and West runs between the two cities, with sophisticated and fashionable Dallas on one side, and proud and simple Fort Worth on the other..."

Chesapeake Energy Drilling in Downtown Fort Worth

Below is a Dallas CBS news segment about the first Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale drilling site in downtown Fort Worth. Yes, you read correctly, they are drilling for gas in downtown Fort Worth. In this video you'll get to see the drilling rig in operation, hear some Chesapeake Energy people explain it, get some looks at downtown Fort Worth, including some longhorns and see a local news lady with really big hair....

Charter Communications Missing Channels Solution

Well. I've had me a day. It started with dealing with an off shore WaMu bank customer service center that specialized in gibberish.

It ended, well, it's not quite the end of the day yet, but by late late afternoon I'd solved my problem with Charter Communications lack of communicating as to why I can no longer watch Bravo or TCM.

Oh, Charter had explanations. But they were GIBBERISH.

So, this guy knocks on my door. He's from AT & T. Selling their new cable tv, phone and internet service. He quickly made quite a good case as to why I should dump Charter.

The number one thing that sold me is when the guy said AT & T does not use off shore customer support because they don't want to piss people off, they want to create good word of mouth. Like this blog.

Come October 14, AT & T will show up here and will install DVR's for 2 TV's. Converter boxes for 2 TVs. The Internet connection stuff and anything else needed. For way less than I've been paying that inept Charter Communications.

Once I'm up and running with my new AT & T system that is gonna be one fun call to Charter overseas to tell them I'm cancelling their crappy service.

America Not Number One In Alcohol Consumption

This afternoon I came across a list from the World Health Organization ranking the World's countries by how many liters of pure alcohol are consumed per capita per year in each country.

The United States did not do too well on this list. We aren't even in the Top 40. Little Luxembourg is the World's top consumer of booze at 15.56 liters per capita per year. The United States is #43 at a measly 8.44 liters. Luxembourg drinks almost twice as much as we do.

Australia drinks more than we do, coming in at #38 with 9.02 liters per. It's not much of a shock that Russia is drunker than us, #27 with 10.32 liters. France is drunker than the Russians at #17 with 11.43 liters. The United Kingdom almost cracked the Top Ten at #11 and 11.75 liters.

I guess it is no great surprise that the Irish are #2, drinking 13.69 liters of pure alcohol per capita per year.

America's neighbor to the north drinks less than we do, #50 with 8.00 liters. Maybe the Canuch's relative sobriety is due to excessive beer consumption with its lesser amount of alcohol than something like vodka.

Our neighbor to the south is way more sober than even the Canadians, coming in at #96 and only 4.50 liters per capita. Maybe the Mexicans don't drink their tequila and save it all for export.

It's a 4 way tie for most sober country at #197 and 0.00 liters of pure alcohol consumption per capita per year. The 4 totally sober places on the planet are Bangladesh, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and, this one is a surprise, one of the American territories, the United States Virgin Islands. I find that hard to believe.

You can look at the entire list by going here....

Washington Mutual Aggravation, Part II

I called Washington Mutual this morning. Once again, like I said yesterday, their account verification system is haywire. After a couple tries it gave me a hit #2 option to access a live banker.

I did so and got an Indian, I think, by Indian I don't mean Native American.

I explained the problem with them assessing a fee on a returned check that should not have been returned. I had to repeat myself multiple times due to each time the live Indian banker missed the drift.

Eventually he put me on hold. When he came back on he told me he was transferring me to his assistant manager, Eric.

I got to explain the problem again. Eric sounded as if he might have been an American in America. Eric eventually concluded the 2nd $12 fee was a mistake and he'd credit it back. I once more asked why the check was returned to the WaMu account on which it was drawn, with that account having plenty of money to cover the check. Eric said it did appear that that should not have happened. But that he couldn't verify it without seeing the other account.

Since I had that other account's verification info Eric agreed he could look at it. He did so and saw that 2 checks had been deposited on the 19th. But that he'd have to talk to his manager to figure out why the check drawn on that account was returned on the 25th, which, maybe coincidentally, was the day WaMu was taken over by the Feds.

Eric said he'd call me when he had an answer. So far, no call, and no crediting back to the 2nd account of the erroneous fee.

I hate banks and offshore customer support centers.

Chesapeake Energy's Rape of a Neighborhood

Yesterday I blogged about the damage being done by Chesapeake Energy to Scott Avenue in East Fort Worth, adjacent to the Tandy Hills Park Natural Area.

This morning I had incoming from Don Young, with pictures, on the same subject.....

Using the word "rape" as a metaphor should always be done sparingly and with sensitivity and only when people have grown numb to reality. In the case, I believe it is an apt word to describe the violence inflicted on the people whose lives are impacted by the action depicted in these photos. There is no better metaphor to express the sense of violation committed by Chesapeake Energy on this neighborhood and these extraordinarily rare and scenic prairie hills.

I urge you to come see for yourself what the City of Fort Worth has allowed to happen, once again, in east Fort Worth. The city staff, under the direction of Mayor Mike Moncrief, was presented with a clear choice: Deny the permit and risk a costly lawsuit or protect people and neighborhoods. In other words, enforce existing zoning regulations. No one said it would be easy or without risk. At the end of the day they chose to side with Chesapeake Energy and a handful of mineral owners.

Moncrief and staff did so with full knowledge of the negative impact to the neighborhood and nearby Tandy Hills Natural Area. They did so knowing that Chesapeake has plans to expand the drill site and add dangerous pipelines to the mix. Once again, they failed to do the right and honorable thing.

This latest attack should be more than enough reason to enact a moratorium on all new permits for gas drilling operations. Regardless of where you live in Fort Worth, this should concern you.
But, just being concerned does nothing. You, dear reader, must take direct action. Time is running out. Visit FW-Credo.org to learn how you can make a difference.

Also, if you will, let Mayor Moncrief hear from you: Mike.Moncrief@fortworthgov.org

Don Young
FWCanDo
P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147

"God bless Fort Worth, Texas. Help us save some of it."

Washington Mutual Aggravation

When Washington Mutual, affectionately known as WaMu, went under last week we were assured this would cause no problems for existing account holders.

I beg to differ.

I have 2 WaMu accounts. On September 19 two large checks from the State of Texas were deposited.

A small check for only $100 was drawn on the first account and deposited into the 2nd account, that being the account I use for things like PayPal that I don't want to keep a lot of money in.

Today, September 29, I got a letter from WaMu telling me that I'd been assessed a $12 "Returned Deposit Item Fee" due to there being insufficient funds in the 1st account, that being the one in which a large deposit had been made 2 Friday's ago.

I then looked at my account online to learn I've been assessed a 2nd $12 fee which has been deducted as well as the original $100 check, which had been credited, but has now been debited from the 2nd account.

So, the other account, which has plenty of $ in it to cover the $100 check, has not had an overdraft fee or notice generated. So WaMu is charging the 2nd account a total of $24 dollars, claiming, even on the second attempt to run the check through, that there were still insufficient funds. Even though I could see, online, that there were.

Since it's all my money, I still have the $100. It just never left the 1st account. But I'm out the $24 in the second account. Which I'm fairly certain will be returned when I call and complain tomorrow.

The WaMu meltdown occurred right when this problem reared its ugly head. I suspect there is a connection.

When I opened the letter from WaMu I thought I'd just call them, since any other time there's been a problem they quickly fix it. Well. You call the toll-free number and get greeted with a cheery voice welcoming you to WaMu, now a proud part of Chase Bank. I was then asked to enter either my account number or the number on my debit card.

I tried the debit card first. Entered that, though it strained my eyes. Then I was asked to enter the last 4 digits of my S.S. card. Did so, to be told they didn't match. I was then asked to try again. Did so. Same result. Tried again, this time switching to the account number. Same result.

It was starting to annoy me, so I kept at it, a total of 7 times before I gave up. There is no way I incorrectly entered the numbers 7 times. Any other time I've called WaMu I instantly get through.

I've got the direct local number of my local WaMu guy. It was past banking hours. He'll get a call in the morning. I hope it doesn't make me cranky. If it does I guess I'll be joining all those other people who have withdrawn a total of multi $billions from WaMu, which is what hastened the meltdown and the Federal takeover.