Random Thoughts of Mine...

E-tailers snagged in marketing 'scam' blame customers

First, the good news for consumers: the U.S. government's investigation into how dozens of well-known online stores worked with controversial marketers to "deceive" customers out of $1.4 billion has prompted some retailers, including Continental Airlines, to sever ties with the marketers.

Now, the bad news: the marketers--Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty--are still in business and judging from the responses of many of the retailers involved, such as Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz, it will be business as usual. They see nothing wrong with the marketing practices that millions of angry online shoppers and members of the U.S. Senate have called a "scam," "robbery" and "theft."

While the U.S. Senate Commerce committee produced a staggering amount of documentation during a hearing last week that appears to show consumers are misled into signing up for so-called loyalty programs, the retailers continue to suggest it's their customers who are at fault.

The controversy began last May, when the Commerce committee launched an investigation into the practices employed by Vertrue, Affinion, and Webloyalty. The committee's investigators found thousands of complaints going back years from people who said they discovered "mysterious charges" on their credit cards and struggled to discover how they got there.

Read the rest of the article here.

McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas'

Retailers aren't the only ones gearing up for the holiday season. Criminals are also out in force.

To highlight the increased crime during the holidays, security company McAfee has come up with the "12 Scams of Christmas" ranging from bogus electronic greeting cards that deliver malware instead of cheer to fake charities that steal your money and your identity.

It's especially important to be extra careful this time of year, says McAfee's David Marcus. "The bad guys know people are spending more time online, they're paying more bills online so [the criminals] stand a chance of being a bit more successful this time of year.

In a podcast interview (scroll down to listen), Marcus counted down the 12 scams of Christmas starting with:

1. Charitable phishing scams: Marcus warns consumers to be wary of e-mails that appear to be from legitimate charities. Not only will they take your money and deprive charities of needed funds, but they will also steal your credit card information and identity.

2. Fake invoices from delivery services: During this period, scammers will send out fake invoices and delivery notifications appearing to come from Federal Express, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service or even the U.S. Customs Service saying that they were unable to deliver a package to your address. They ask you to confirm your address and give them credit card information to pay for delivery.

3. Social networking friend requests: Bad guys take advantage of this social time of year by sending out authentic looking friend requests via e-mail. Marcus recommends that you not click on those links but sign into Facebook and other services and look for friend requests from the site itself. Clicking on a link could install malware on your computer or trick you into revealing your password.

Read the rest of the article here.



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I found these following articles interesting, so here they are:

Ted Rall: It’s increasingly evident that Obama should resign

MIAMI — We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.

From health care to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn’t have the nerve to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning?

Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now — before he drags us further into the abyss.

I refer here to Obama’s plan for “preventive detentions.” If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in “prolonged detention.” Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama’s shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK.

In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street.

Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people’s lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can’t control, what George Orwell called “thoughtcrime” — contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action.

Locking up people who haven’t done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to “preventive detention” is an outrage. That the president of the United States, a man who won an election because he promised to elevate our moral and political discourse, would even entertain such a revolting idea offends the idea of civilization itself.

Read the rest of the article here.
These "preventive detentions" proposed by Obama were also rightfully blasted by Rachel Maddow.

White House 'dialogue' site scrubbed of eligibility posts
Many Obama birth certificate queries yanked from 'transparency' debate

With more than 200 individual threads and thousands of comments on the eligibility issue alone, moderators of the White House website on "open government dialogue" have been working tirelessly to edit the dialogue about Barack Obama's elusive "long-form" birth certificate.

Many of the top-rated threads are from citizens calling on Obama to release his birth certificate. The postings in the "top rated" category have received the most "looks promising" votes from users. New threads on the topic of Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as president are appearing by the minute.

WND observed the "Making Data More Accessible" section for several hours as more suggestions appeared and at least 60 were subsequently deleted on the first page alone – all requests for the president to submit proof of citizenship.

One deleted post echoed many others in asking President Obama to "Prove that you are a U.S. citizen and valid president."

The post asks why Obama doesn't simply release his "real birth certificate and end all of this controversy."

"Are you a fraud?" it asks. "Is your election to the highest office in the land the largest scam ever pulled on the American people? Are you really not eligible for office? End the speculation and prove who you are."

Read the rest of the article here.

Dr. Orly Taitz wants people to comment on a post on the Open Government Dialogue site called, Obama MUST step down he is NOT-eligible per his own admission! NO Birth Certificate Required! NOT eligible even IF born in HA. She was born in the former Soviet Union and believes that Obama/Soetoro is ineligible to serve as POTUS. Wonder if that post about Obama/Soetoro's eligibility will be deleted soon along with all the others. I had previously done a post on this issue of Barack Obama's (aka Barry Soetoro, which was his name when he grew up in Indonesia) eligibility, or lack thereof, for the office that he currently holds. This issue has not gone away, but continues to pester Mr. Obama/Soetoro because he refuses to release his "long form" birth certificate and he also sealed his school records at American schools he attended. Those records would show whether he attended the schools as an American citizen or as a foreign student. Here is an article that has 26 Facts about Mr. Obama/Soetoro. During the campaign, John McCain released all his records when asked. Senator McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. He did release his records, so why hasn't Obama/Soetoro done the same? He has been repeatedly asked in the months since he had announced his candidacy. Is he hiding something that he doesn't want the American public & the world at large to know? Let's say that he was born in Kenya, thus making himself ineligible for POTUS, he has made himself open to blackmail by others who know and will use it against him & America. The Mike in the Morning show interviewed the Kenyan ambassador shortly after the election and asked him if they were planning to make Obama's birthplace in Kenya into a memorial. The ambassador admitted that those plans are already underway! You also go to his website where you can listen to the full almost 20 minutes long call for yourself. There are some people that say that Obama/Soetoro posted his "birth certificate" online, but there are allegations that the document is a forgery. You can also see a video on this subject posted by Dr. Ron Polarik here.



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TMZ posts photo it claims is a beaten Rihanna
Web site purportedly shows her face after alleged attack by Chris Brown

LOS ANGELES - A photo that appears to be singer Rihanna's face with bruises, scratches and swelling from an attack allegedly at the hands of boyfriend-singer Chris Brown was posted Thursday night by the celebrity Web site TMZ.

The close-up image shows a welt above each of the woman's eyebrows, marks on her cheek and around her lips, and general swelling. TMZ did not say how it obtained the photo, when it was taken or by whom.

Hours after the photo was posted, the Los Angeles Police Department launched an internal investigation and asked for the public's help in finding the person who leaked it. A police news release said the image "has the appearance" of one taken during a domestic violence investigation, and classified its release as a case of serious misconduct.

Asked earlier Thursday whether he could confirm the photo's origin, LAPD Officer Jason Lee said only that the department had not released images of the woman who accused Brown, and would not release evidence photos. A spokeswoman for the district attorney said all evidence related to the case was still with police.

Read the rest of the story here.

I don't usually post stories about celebrities, but many people have heard of Chris Brown allegedly beating up his girlfriend, Rihanna, before this year's Grammys earlier this month. She won't discuss Chris Brown, but thanked her fans for their support. It seems that Chris Brown has had a history of abuse in his family. That is a disturbing picture of a woman who was a victim of domestic violence that TMZ posted. My heart goes out to Rihanna & her family. My heart also goes out to all the victims of domestic violence that we don't see on the news because they are not rich & famous like this particular celebrity couple is.

I remember this couple that I knew in high school. The girl, I think her name was Gina, and the guy, think his name was Angelo, were not a happy couple in my opinion. I didn't know them very well, but Gina seemed like a nice girl. Angelo seemed like a jerk to me. He was on the baseball team, but he would routinely beat Gina. I remember one time on the city bus going home from school when they got into an argument. I don't remember what the argument was about, but I do remember she hit him in the arm. Then he backhanded her across the face. She started crying while he just sat there laughing a little at her. This was routine for the both of them. What happened to the both of them after high school, I don't know. Hopefully Gina dumped him then got some counseling.

This reminds me of an episode of Snapped that I saw on TV before. In case you don't know, Snapped is a true-crime show about cases of murder involving women. There was a particular case that on an episode of Snapped that was particularly heart-wrenching. I searched the website but couldn't find a webisode for this particular story. In it, a woman, think her name was Linda, murdered her 2nd husband after she found out that he had been sexually abusing her daughter, his stepdaughter. The abuse had been going on for at least a year, plus he had also raped the girl too. Linda had 2 kids from her previous marriage before she met the guy, think his name was Ed. They dated, then eventually married. Shortly afterwards Ed became mentally, verbally & physically abusive towards Linda. This he also extended to the kids. Linda learned to live with the beatings that she received at his hands.

One day the daughter, who was about 13, complained to one of her teachers at school that her stepdad had sexually abused her. The police were notified shortly thereafter. They even went to the house to interview Ed. He was very persuasive in convincing the cops that nothing had happened. Afterwards, he took out his anger on the daughter. Her own mother even refused to believe her! About a year later, it was discovered that her daughter was pregnant. She claimed to everybody that it was a fellow classmate that had impregnated her. One day she admitted to her mom that it was her stepdad had raped her. Again, her mother refused to believe her. She said that she had proof of the alleged attack in a video tape that was hidden in the house. The daughter told her mother exactly where to find the tape. Ed was outside at the time. Linda found the tape, then put it in her video camera. What she saw then shocked and horrified her. She put the tape back where she had found it since Ed was coming inside. Linda couldn't get the images she saw on the tape out of her mind. Later that night, Ed was sleeping in the bed. Linda replayed the tape over & over in her mind as she sat awake in bed. She grabbed his shotgun and killed him.

She was arrested, then put on trial for Ed's murder. During the trial, her daughter gave birth. DNA tests proved that Ed was the father of the baby. The baby was given up for adoption. Given all this evidence, the jury found Linda not guilty. Some people say that she was justified; that Ed had this coming & he deserved it. Some say that she is a cold-blooded killer and this was a miscarriage of justice. If I was in her shoes, who knows? I probably would have done the same thing. What would you have done?

Here is a webisode of a season 5 episode of Snapped featuring the story of Kimberly Cunningham, who murdered someone close to her after she discovered that he had sexually abused her teenage daughter. Who knows what anybody else would have done if they were in her shoes?



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Clarification: I mistakenly dropped a word when commenting on whether the officer made any hand gestures to signal the bicyclist to stop. The sentence should have read that the officer made no hand gestures.

Kudos to The Smoking Gun for posting a copy of the arrest report filed by New York City policeman Patrick Pogan.

He's the officer who a tourist videotaped body slamming a bicyclist in what appears to be an unprovoked attack last Friday. The case is rapidly playing out on YouTube, where the clip has been watched nearly 900,000 times since Sunday night, when it was posted.

This is why I love the Web and I respect The Smoking Gun. They get paper. Thesmokinggun.com is famous for posting copies of important documents before anybody. They let readers decide for themselves what people say by publishing court filings, e-mails and memos.

Read the rest of the story here.

I saw the video earlier on YouTube and could hardly believe it. Some members of the NYPD are bad apples that give the rest of the cops on the force a bad name. There have been reports in the past of cops abusing their power. A co-worker of mine had several runins with NY cops. He calls them arrogant SOBs. When you read the police report filed by the cop who body slammed the bicyclist, he lies more than once on the report. He claims the bicyclist hit him, knocking him down and giving him lacerations. That clearly did not happen on the video. The cop even claimed that he saw the bicyclist weaving in and out of traffic almost causing some wrecks. The traffic looked stopped to me in the video also. The cop never tried to gesture, or voice, anything to the bicyclist about stopping for him. This looks like a clear case of police brutality, which does not surprise me about hometown cops. The cop is currently suspended while the NYPD investigates. He needs to be fired for assaulting the bicyclist and for lying multiple times on the police report he filed. If he did these things once, he will do it again unless he is fired.



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I had seen this movie sometime ago when it was playing at a local theatre for a limited engagement. It was made by the late Hollywood producer, Aaron Russo. You can see a trailer for the movie here.

In this film, Mr. Russo set out to find out about the laws concerning the Federal Income Tax in America. He ended up covering much more subjects such as, the Federal Reserve System (which is linked to the income tax), national ID cards, chips that can be implanted into humans, electronic voting machines (rigged elections), and the erosion of civil liberties in America. Big Brother is becoming real in our times. It has been accelerated since the events of 9/11, which was allowed to happen, with the full knowledge of the U.S. government, by the way. All of the earlier mentioned things began in 1913 with (1)the ratification of the 16th Amendment, (2) the passage of the Federal Income Tax, and (3)the ratification of the 17th Amendment. All 3 of these events are connected. Here is a link to the official movie site. Below is a quote from the site, along with the movie:

America: Freedom to Fascism is a compelling and troubling account of how the wealth of our nation was silently passed from its citizens to a handful of powerful bankers in 1913. That's the year the Federal Reserve Act and the 16th Amendment were introduced, giving a privately held corporation the means to control our finances while ensuring its interest payments through the strong arms of the newly-formed Internal Revenue Service. Ever since then, Russo suggests, Americans have been gradually conditioned to accept fewer freedoms and a lower standard of living... all the while considering debt and servitude as distinctly American values.

Russo's first and most cogent point is simple: Americans are not required to pay a federal income tax. That's a bold statement to make, as few people believe that such a fraud could be perpetrated for so long. My father, himself an accountant, insists that the income tax is a very real thing. Russo takes that same belief to IRS employees and simply asks them to cite where it says an unapportioned income tax is required of us all. Guess what? They can't. In a telling segment Sheldon Cohen, former commissioner of the IRS, goes so far as to reject Supreme Court rulings and the Constitution as benchmarks over what is legal with regards to taxation. Russo also interviews members of the tax honesty movement as well as disenfranchised IRS agents who agree that no law on the books conjures up a requirement to send the government part of one's hard-earned paycheck. Russo then showcases court cases where those accused of tax evasion have won precisely because the prosecution cannot provide evidence of a legal federal income tax law.

It's shocking to have it hammered into your head over and over that you've thrown your money away for nothing, but repetition is good; it helps knock loose the deeply entrenched belief that we owe a portion of our livelihood to our government.

America: Freedom to Fascism - Director's Authorized Version





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